


Darksoulna 4

by Barabahad



Category: Dark Souls (Video Games), Persona 4
Genre: Adventure, Comfort/Angst, F/M, Gen, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2018-12-06 21:29:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 24
Words: 268,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11609328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barabahad/pseuds/Barabahad
Summary: When the Midnight Channel appears on Yu Narukami's TV once more, the Investigation Team assembles to rescue its latest victim. When inside, Rise finds herself separated from the rest of the group, but as luck would have it, she happens to cross paths with a powerful ally. One with a suit of armour and a sword taller than either of them. Rise x OC.Mirrored from FF.net.





	1. The Crystal Caverns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A resurgence of the Midnight Channel, an armoured acquaintance, and some disconcerting scenery.

Three months. Three months since Yu Narukami had left the investigation in Inaba behind. Longer still was the time since someone had last appeared on the Midnight Channel. Yet here he sat, lying on his bed with book in hand, his ears trained on the resounding silence filling the room. Waiting for the moment the sound of static would replace it.

Reading over a sentence for the fifth time, it became abundantly clear that his mind was elsewhere, as much as he tried to convince himself otherwise. It wasn’t easy admitting that he missed the Midnight Channel, the very thing that had almost been getting people killed for the past year of his life. Not that Yu missed it for love of murder and kidnapping, but rather for love of the common goal it had presented. Gathering at Junes and school to discuss the case. Getting to know those who fell victim to its power and befriending them after. As much as the Midnight Channel was the cause of much woe and despair, he wouldn’t have such close bonds without it.

Yu sat up, putting his back to the wall and thumping his head gently against it. Friendships born of misery was no reason to want said misery back, much less sit every rainy night in anticipation of it. Besides, the culprit behind last year’s case was caught. What reason would there be for _anything_ to appear on it?

Just wait until summer break. Everyone would be available then, at some point or another. He didn’t need the Midnight Channel. Nobody did.

Yu leapt in shock as the screen flashed into life.

“What a meaningless endeavour.” The young male voice echoed out of the screen. Curiously, the figure seemed to be laden with thick armour, trudging towards a large pyramid through a desolate desert. “Through what foul machination was it ordained that I walk this pointless path? Surely the gods cannot be so cruel.” The figure ceased hanging their head, now looking up towards the pyramid proper. “Won’t someone end it all? I cannot continue on like this. Please. Grant me death.”

A sombre-looking title card appeared behind the man, written in plain letters. “A Journey of Self-Realisation: The Tale of the Elusive Wandering Spirit.”

With that, the image disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. Yu felt his entire train of thought derail as he tried to come to terms with what he’d seen. Before he could ponder the who, why and how, a familiar buzzing sounded out from his pocket. He lifted the offending item, his phone, and checked the caller ID.

Yosuke Hanamura.

“Hey, were you watching TV right now?! The Midnight Channel’s come back on!” Yosuke blared down the line. He paused as he heard a light laugh come from Yu’s end. “What? What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, Yosuke. Just glad I wasn’t the only one keeping an eye on things. I was starting to think I was being paranoid.” Yu ran a hand through his hair, a genuine smile on his face. “But yeah, I saw. What do you make of it?”

“I have no idea… Didn’t even get a look at the guy’s face. Hell, it didn’t even give us his name! How’re we supposed to find _anyone_ like that?”

If the situation was off to a bad start to begin with, it wasn’t getting any better. “Not to mention everyone’s all split up. By the time we tell everyone what’s wrong and arrange to meet up, me might be out of time altogether.” Yu bit his lip, his eyes drawn to the floor in thought. He and Rise were by far the furthest outliers, and given one was in the middle of kickstarting a dormant idol career, time off didn’t sound too plentiful. “We need a plan. I’ll tell Rise what’s up in the morning, you get everyone else up to speed.”

“Hey, why do you only have to call one person?!  You should be be the one ringing Yukiko in the first place, she’s _your_ girlfriend, after all!”

Somehow, after the amount of correspondence Yu’d had with Yukiko since leaving, he imagined one day couldn’t hurt. “You’ll see them all at school, won’t you? If you catch up with them in the afternoon, I can contact Rise in the morning. That way everyone will be up to speed before the day’s even half over.”

He heard Yosuke pause on the other end of the line, making a thoughtful sort of noise. “...Eh, I guess. Dunno if anyone else was watching, but I don’t wanna wake anyone up if they weren’t.”

“Especially Chie?”

“ _Especially_ Chie.”

The two shared a laugh, said their goodbyes and parted. Yu tossed his phone onto his desk, placing his hands behind his head as he took everything in.

And with that, the investigation resumed.

 

* * *

 

 

Yu hadn’t been awake for all of 5 minutes before he had his phone in his hand, finger over Rise’s number. Hoping she wasn’t too busy, he bit the bullet and tapped, holding the phone at arm’s length from his ear.

“SENPAI!” Rise bellowed, loud enough to strain the phone’s speakers. She hadn’t even let the phone ring once, quick on the draw as she was. “It’s been soooooo long since we last spoke! How are you? What’s your hometown like? Have you been back to Inaba at all?”

As much as he enjoyed Rise’s usual brand of bubbly enthusiasm, it wasn’t why he’d called. “Rise, calm down. Someone’s appeared on the Midnight Channel.” That quieted her down a notch. Obviously being as far away from everyone would get her to freak out as she did, but that could wait until someone wasn’t about to be murdered.

Rise’s voice receded into a worried whisper. “Seriously? But how…?” She trailed off. “I thought we were done with all this, y’know? What are we going to do, Senpai?”

Unlike the night before, sleeping on the matter had given Yu an answer to that very question.

...Well, an answer of a sort. “I think I have an idea. It’s risky, and I’m not even sure if it’ll work, but it’s the best option we’ve got on such short notice. You and I will enter our respective TVs, while the rest of the guys head to Junes and try to get Teddie to sniff us out from there. If they can’t find you, you can use Kouzeon to find them.” It was asking a lot of her, especially since she was the only one on the team that didn’t fight. Going on her own would be dangerous.

“What about you, Senpai? How’re you going to find everyone without me?” And yet it was him she was most concerned about, insistence clear in her voice.

Yu snorted for having expected anything less. “Never you worry about me, I can take care of myself. Just focus on finding everyone else, alright? Meeting up will be all the easier if you’re with them.”

Rise hummed to herself. Yu could practically see her tilting her head from side to side like she was there. “...Okay, I’ll trust you Senpai. You’d better come find me quick though! I want to see you all as soon as possible, okay?!”

She and him both. “You bet, Rise. Just make sure you’re ready, we’ll head in around 6pm tonight. Be careful, alright?” No sooner had Yu hung up, his cell began buzzing in his hand once again, this time with Yosuke's number showing on the screen.

Though he knew Rise’d blow his ears out the moment she answered, he hadn’t expected the same of Yosuke. “Everyone already knew! They were all watching last night too!” What a relief, now he _definitely_ wasn’t paranoid. “Still… who was that last night? Who wears thick armour like that anymore? Looked like he was late for a play or something.”

“Guess we’ll just have to ask him when we find him, won’t we? Tell everyone to get ready for tonight. At 6pm we go in.” He concluded, slipping his phone back into his pocket.

Everyone had known. Everyone had been watching along with him for anything suspicious.

Except Rise. She was the only one who didn’t know who they were looking for. The one person who might have had a glimmer of a chance at finding their target and she didn’t even know what he looked like. “Guess I’ll need to tell her when we meet up. She wouldn’t go off looking for them on her own, right?” Right, Yu affirmed to himself. Keeping an eye on the clock, he picked up his bag and set off for school, his heartbeat quickening at the thought of getting to see everyone later that night.

 

* * *

 

 

Rise paced around her room restlessly. As much as she tried to calm herself, the thought of going into the TV World alone wasn’t any more comforting than it had been ten minutes ago. No Senpai. No anybody. The more she thought about it, the lonelier she began to feel.

No, no. Lonely thoughts wouldn’t do. She was going to see everyone again! Tonight! Even Senpai! “He’d better be ready when he sees me,” Rise thought to herself, “I’m going to give him a hug so tight it’ll snap him in two!”

The thought ended quickly. That would’ve been nice. Would’ve been if Yu and Yukiko hadn’t been as intimate as they were. “Right. Guess I can’t really do stuff like that anymore, huh…?” Rise plopped down on the bed behind her, hands together as they rested lazily on her knees. She was persistent, and as Yukiko had put it, ‘dangerous,’ but she wasn’t stupid, nor was she selfish. At least not so selfish as to try and pry away her Senpai from his girlfriend, who he’d known way before meeting her.

He’d been cool about it to begin with. Never let on that they were dating, likely out of respect for her privacy. But the signs were there. Flitting off together to the shrine, heading over to the Inn, heading back to Senpai’s house together, it all added up. Even still, there’d been a glimmer of hope, slight though it was. Not even that he’d reciprocate her feelings, even just entertaining the idea would have done.

But he never did. For sure, there were more aggressive ways to be rejected. Some of which, Rise thought to herself, she might even have deserved. But he’d been respectful and kind about it. Just like he’d always been.

Rise shook her head and slapped her cheeks. “Nuh-uh, no way. Not dwelling on it, not before I go and see everyone. I’ll just have to be happy for him and Yukiko-senpai, that’s it! If Senpai’s happy about it, then I’m happy about it!” She chanted, riling herself up. There was no use in trying to save someone from shadows while in a bad mood, so there was no way she was getting into one! She was stronger than that!

So far, the convincing was working. For how long was anyone’s guess.

6pm struck, the alarm on Rise’s phone sounding off as it vibrated across the table. Instantly, the butterflies began to take flight in her chest. There was no backing out of it now. Going in alone was the only way to be sure she’d see everyone. Plus that person stuck in the TV wasn’t going to rescue themselves, she thought to herself.

Taking a deep breath and hoping she wouldn’t be too far from her friends, Rise took the plunge and leapt into the LCD screen, leaving only a fleeting ripple on the surface to show she’d ever been there.

The familiar feeling of descending into the foggy domain engulfed Rise’s entire body, shortly before being interrupted by the less-than-familiar place she’d landed in. Upon opening her eyes, it was much to Rise’s relief to see her landing zone was completely devoid of shadows. What made her less happy was the landing zone itself. She pulled herself to her feet, her shoes clicking against the thick mass of crystal she stood on. Crystal platforms surrounded by more and more crystal, above, below and everywhere in between. It brought to mind images of a lake frozen in the middle of a storm.

She circled around on the spot, feeling like she was trapped in some kind of tall, cylindrical tower. Peeping carefully over the edge of her platform, Rise gulped as it seemed to split off into various smaller paths, spidering down the tower for what seemed like forever.

“That… looks a little slippy.” She lied to herself. Saying it looked slippy was like saying Kanji looked short. The scenery may have looked pretty, but it by no means looked safe. “Kouzeon, let’s see where everyone is!” Rise said, hoping the act would keep her head right as her persona’s visor fitted over her eyes.

The presence was faint, but it was still there. Unfortunately, it seemed everyone was more than a brisk walk away. Even more unfortunately, “They’re all the way down there…?” Rise asked herself, once again peering down the endless crystal cobweb below her. “Well… I guess it’ll be easier for me to go down than for everyone else to come up.” She decided.

Summoning as much courage as she could, Rise took a single step onto one of the descending walkways. Easy now, _easy._ No sudden moves, don’t get too worked up. Tiny little baby steps, that’s what she needed. Just take it easy and--

Rise’s heart nearly stopped as her footing slipped.

Her screams echoed around the cavern as she fell to her backside and slid down the walkway, feet scrambling wildly and uselessly in an attempt to slow herself down. She reckoned it must have done something as she stopped mere inches from the end of the platform she slid onto, inky black oblivion waiting below her.

The platform was so small that standing up would’ve been a challenge. It stood to reason, then, that sliding was the only acceptable way forward. “Call me crazy, but I get the feeling this is going to take a while.” Rise said to herself. Nevertheless, she swung her slender legs around to the next path down, positioning herself in such a way that she felt she could slow herself down if need be. A feeling that disappeared with her next squeal on the way down.

Rise slid to a stop, finding the platform large enough to finally stand up on. While footing would no longer be an issue, a far graver one arose from the ground. Shadows.

Fear set in quick as the three shadows rose up, large crystalline mouths with tongues like spiked flails. “O-Okay Kouzeon, we’ve got this, right?” Yet try as she might, the sense of doom inside Rise failed to be rid of. A frantic glance at the drop behind her proved that jumping to safety wasn’t an option either.

She knew nobody was here. Kouzeon had told her as much. “Senpai?! Kanji-kun?! ANYONE?!” Yet still she called out, knowing there would be no answer. The urge to cry welled up in her eyes as she realised she was in no fit state to fight without her friends. Of course she wasn’t. As if she could--

 _“PERISH, UNEARTHLY CRETINS!”_ Someone roared from behind the shadows. The thick blade of a sword tore through the backmost two, outright destroying one and knocking the other off the edge of the platform. A male voice grunted and shouted from underneath a black hood, dodging and swiping at the lone shadow that remained. The deafening sound of metal clashing with crystal rang out like a mighty bell tower, signifying the departure of the final foe.

Rise stood in shock. The guy was wearing thick, pointed silver armour and swinging around a sword that looked _way_ too big to be held with one hand. A sword which, upon closer inspection, looked to be distorting the air around it, almost as though it were on fire. As she distanced herself from the edge and narrowed her analytical eyes, the fellow seemed to take notice of her.

The armour-clad person’s face was obscured by their hood, which seemed to contain an impenetrable veil of sheer black within. “Gracious, that looked a tad dangerous. Are you alright, Miss?” Despite his lack of a face, he at least _sounded_ friendly enough.

Rise let out a sigh, letting the tension leave her. “Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! I didn’t know what I was going to do back there!” She finally managed a smile, the tears long since too stunned to fall.

“Think nothing of it. I did only what any Warrior of Sunlight worth their salt would have done, Miss…?” The man- no, _boy’s_ voice sounded strange, somehow. Muffled? Distorted? Something was definitely off, but it was hard to tell what. Then again, now was hardly the time for more analysis. The fellow _had_ asked for her name, after all.

“Oh! I’m Rise Kujikawa. What’s your name?” She asked cheerily.

The (presumably) young man thumped a fist to his armoured breast. “I am Knight Astaire, an adherent of the Lord of Sunlight.”

Warrior of Sunlight? _Lord_ of Sunlight? What was this iron-plated weirdo on about? Rise chose to ignore it and focus on the part she _had_ understood.  “Knight Astaire? Don’t you have a first name?”

The knight shrugged. “Just Astaire.”

Rise blinked, almost taken aback. “Wait, really?”

“I know. Hardly the ideal first name, but it wasn’t mine to choose.”

... _Wait a minute._ His name wasn’t just Astaire, his first name was Just. Somewhere off in the distance, Rise swore she heard a rimshot. Mulling over it more, she found the ends of her mouth curling up as she tried stifling a giggle. Astaire rubbed the back of his head in what could have been embarassment, but it was hard to tell under the hood.

“So, Astaire-kun-” Something about using the honorific on such a foreign-sounding name seemed a bit odd, but habit permitted it all the same. She doubted he’d get what “Senpai” meant anyway. “-What are you doing here? Are you looking for the missing person too?”

Had Yu, Yosuke, or _anybody else_ been there, they might have balked at Rise for even asking the question. All the same, as far as she saw it, nobody who’d fallen into the TV World before getting a Persona had _ever_ been able to fend off shadows on their own. Surely this guy, whoever he was, had to be some kind of persona-aware person like them, right?

Didn’t explain the armour, though. Maybe he was just really into role playing.

The knight cocked his hooded head in thought. “Hmm. I was originally forced down here because those damnable monsters chased me. I happened to notice a number of treasure chests down here and felt obliged to investigate further.” Astaire explained. “After which I heard your cries for help and naturally came to assist you. But as for missing persons? I’m afraid I’ve heard nothing to that effect.”

Rise tilted her own head in confusion. He clearly _wasn’t_ here to rescue anybody, so he couldn’t have seen the Midnight Channel. What exactly did that make him, then? Was he some weird being that had just come from nowhere, like Teddie? Looking at him, it was hard to think anyone had simply thrown him in. He was a full head above Rise and was evidently built like a brick wall, what kind of bulldozer would someone need to shift him inside a TV in the first place?

“Well then, shall we be off?” Astaire inquired, knocking Rise’s thoughts clean out of her head. “If this person you’re looking for resides in this cavern, chances are they’re even further down than we are. We’d best get a move on!” He hoisted his sword over his shoulder and began making for the next walkway.

Rise blinked at how gung-ho he was, considering they’d only just met. “Are you sure? I mean, I _do_ need to get down there one way or the other, and you _are_ the only other fighter here, but won’t protecting me and fighting stuff off be a bit... “ Rise paused and rubbed her chin. How would Senpai describe it? “...cumbersome?” Yeah, that’d do it.

The knight turned, already beginning his descent. “In my experience, there are two sorts of people in the world.” He held up a finger. “Those who sally forth headlong into battle,” And a second. “And those who excel at supporting them. Looking at you, I get the sense that you are one of the latter.” He pumped an armoured fist into the air. “So I implore you! Lend me your supportive strength that we might show these foul demons the power of jolly co-operation!”

Now _that_ sounded like an arrangement she could deal with. “You got it! Jolly co-operation, here we come!” She nodded intensely Fighting may have been outside her repertoire, but Kouzeon was second to none when it came to providing support. Pumped up at the knight’s words, the two new companions set off and began their crystalline descent.

 

* * *

 

 

"I'm telling you guys, she's above us! I don't know how, but she is!" A flustered Teddie exclaimed, looking up at the sky in a very bearwildered manner. His nose twitched and sniffed as he hunted for Rise's scent, but the only place he was being led to was directly above them.

“Don’t make no friggin’ sense. Yu-senpai was stupidly close by, the hell could be so different about Rise?” Kanji asked, fanning his face in an attempt to beat the heat of the desert.

"While I'm sure the composition of the sky isn't the same as the one in the real world, I too find it hard to believe that Rise-san is up there." Naoto commented, mirroring Kanji’s attempts to keep cool by using her hat.

Yosuke shaded his eyes from the blaring sun, tapping a foot against the sand. “Crap, this isn’t looking good. What’re we going to do if something happens to Rise and we’re not there?”

“She’ll be fine.” Yukiko snapped. “...Won’t she?” She’d sounded confident at first, but the way she turned to Yu and gave his hand a tight, worried squeeze said otherwise.

Yu nodded. “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s managing. Rise’s stronger than most people think.” With superb timing, a quake was felt underfoot the moment Yu closed his mouth. “Though that might be stretching it a little.”

"What’s she doin' up there? Sounds like she's taking on an army of shadows all by herself with all that damn noise!" Kanji shouted over the din of the quake. Indeed, the same question was echoed in the minds of everyone present. What on earth was Rise getting up to without them?

 

* * *

 

 

“Come, Kouzeon!” Rise called as Astaire cut through the swathes of shadows slinking towards them, his massive sword parting them like they weren’t even there. A bright light enveloped him as Rise charged his next attack, directed at one of the walkways adjacent to the crystal platform they stood on. Filled with newfound might, Astaire’s sword crashed into the path so violently that the entire thing shattered, the shadows on it toppling to their doom below.

Astaire turned slowly to Rise.

Rise’s eyes were wide as she gazed into his hood in return. “That was…”

“Incredible, truly! I had no idea you’d be as competent a partner as you are, Ms. Kujikawa!” In the short space of time since they’d met each other, Astaire had already picked up a habit. Time and time again, Rise told him to call her “Rise-chan” at the very least, but he was having none of it. Not that Rise minded or was terribly surprised. Anyone who wore thick armour, referred to themselves as a knight and fought exclusively with a greatsword was bound to be antiquated, even down to the way they talked. “Never in all my time in Lordran have I had a partner so useful! Absolutely magnificent!”

Rise could feel a trace of heat slightly warm her face, until a certain word caught her ear. “Lordran? What’s Lordran?” She asked, head cocked and eyebrow raised. “Is that the name of the place you came from?”

The knight ceased walking in front of her, turning his fabric-wrapped to look over his shoulder. “Came from? Are you quite well, Ms. Kujikawa? We’re still in Lordran, aren’t we?” He asked, sounding puzzled.

Well, that about confirmed it. This was clearly not a normal case of people being thrown into the TV world, if such a thing could be considered normal in the first place. Given how telling this new information was, Rise bit her tongue before she could correct him. Perhaps getting his to elaborate might shed some light on this whole affair.

A thoughtful hum escaped Astaire’s hood as he shouldered his sword again, leading their way down one of the paths that hadn’t been shattered. “You truly know nothing of Lordran? I assumed a combat-savvy maiden such as yourself might have at least partial knowledge in that regard.”

Combat-savvy? Her? After he’d needed to rescue her from three ordinary shadows? Evidently Kouzeon had made more of an impression on him than Rise had thought.

The knight continued. “...Though if you do indeed know nothing of Lordran, I shall tell you. It was once the Land of Ancient Lords, though it now remains a destitute facsimile of its former self. An accursed land plagued by the Undead, one where the flow of time and space is a little queer. Warriors and legends from the world over congregate, phasing in and out of existence on a whim.”

“Well _that_ sounds cheery.” Rise added midway.

“Indeed. I myself went there at the behest of a fellow from Astora, who freed me from captivity at the cost of his own life. I could think of few better ways to repay him. I’d guess at how long ago that was, but I’m honestly not sure. It could have been today, yesterday or even a thousand years ago. Such is the way of things in Lordran.” He continued explaining. “Nonetheless, I am still here. I feel as though some part of me has gone astray somewhere along the course of my journey, and thus it is that part I now search for. Once I find it, I shall continue about my duty.”

Wait. He didn’t mean his shadow, did he?  If so, how had he gotten into the TV World? More to the point, how had he gotten inside while being _completely_ oblivious to it? Thinking back on it, it’d have made sense for Astaire not to have found any missing persons earlier, since he himself _was_ the missing person.

Rise made a mental note to slap Yu later for not telling her what the victim on the Midnight Channel had looked like beforehand.

Noticing her silence, the knight peered over his shoulder again. “Oh, I do apologise Ms. Kujikawa, I didn’t mean to ramble.”

“No, no, it’s fine! Just thinking about some stuff, is all!” She assured him, shaking her head.

The answer seemed to suffice, as the knight set his eyes on the path again. “By the way, Ms. Kujikawa. If you don’t mind my asking, what brought _you_ to this ravaged land of Undeath? You look and sound far too grounded for some meagre apparition from a world beyond.”

Hopping inside a TV to save someone from another world, who still _believed_ they were in their own world and had seemingly wandered into this one completely unawares, and whose shadow was wandering around somewhere without them as opposed to giving them a verbal beat-down.

You know, the usual. Everyday stuff.

Explaining it to someone from their world was odd enough. In fact, explaining it to people who _knew_ about the TV World would have been odd in and of itself. “Sorry, that’s a secret~!” Rise said with a wink aimed at the knight’s back.

“Yes, yes, of course. We all have our secrets to keep, I suppose.” Astaire nodded contentedly. “That said, if we end up finding these friends of yours, I’d be more than willing to assist in their endeavours as well, whatever they may be. If they’d have me, that is.” He added.

“Don’t worry, I think they would. You’d be surprised how often we wind up making friends that way!” That said, Rise had never heard of the team fighting off a shadow with help from the person who’d created it. Was that even an option? As fearless as the knight seemed, one’s shadow could bring even the most stone-hearted person to their knees.

Actually, on the topic of shadows- “Hey, Astaire-kun.” She paused midway, suddenly aware of how her voice echoed around the cavern. “It’s been kind of a long time since we last saw a shadow, hasn’t it? I wonder what gives.”

Now that she brought it up, both partners became keenly aware of how desolate their surroundings had become. Astaire stopped on the stop, the once-rhythmic clinking together of his armour plunging the rest of the cavern into absolute silence. A very unnerved Rise could feel a resurgence of butterflies in the pit of her stomach, the atmosphere feeling as heavy as the equipment Astaire was carrying.

“I don’t like this, Astaire-kun…” Rise said through increasingly tight-throated breaths.

“Nor do I, Ms. Kujikawa.” Astaire said, quickly moving off again and filling the air with the sound of his movements. “Still, there would be little accomplished by turning back now. To waste a journey such as ours would prove a greater tragedy than whatever awaits us in these monsters’ stead, I imagine.”

As spooky as the sudden silence seemed, Rise had to agree. Downwards was the only way of getting closer to her friends, and they _had_ come this far, after all.

 The rest of the journey into the inky depths was filled with a similar brand of silence. Silence filled only with the footsteps and ambient sounds given off by the sole two people willing to break it. The crystal walls and walkways that had once been so numerous as to be blinding were no more. What had once been one of many paths was now the only one left, surrounded on all sides by walls of foreboding black gravel.

All the while, Rise found herself subconsciously getting closer to her armoured acquaintance. While she sat like a frightened puppy, glancing from side to side of the off chance something should appear, Astaire forged onwards, determined to keep moving. Rise interpreted his stalwart manner in one of two possible ways. Either he simply wasn’t scared - and with a sword as big as his, who would be? - or he had some idea as to why the shadows had fled in the first place.

“Hey, hold on a second. I wanna see if we’re any closer to my friends.” The walk had gone on long enough as it was. If they weren’t all that much closer to her friends, Rise wasn’t keen on figuring out how to get out safely. Thankfully, Astaire came to a stop, nodding at her to go ahead. Kouzeon’s visor over her eyes, she quickly began scanning for signs of life.

Rise’s blood ran cold as she gasped harshly, stepping back in shock.

“Whatever is the matter, Ms. Kujikawa? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” Astaire asked, leaning in intently.

Not a ghost, no. True enough, upon running the scan, it seemed that the signals for the rest of the Investigation Team were close, tantalisingly so.

What concerned Rise wasn’t their signals.

It was the signal between them and her.

Fear latched on to Rise like a bear trap. So tight was its hold that it was all she could do to fearfully peer over the edge, down towards the all-consuming dark below them. Astaire followed her gaze, glancing down in unison.

The cavern was rocked as a bone-shattering roar shook the two of them right through, a pair of massive blue eyes emerging from beneath them. Rise’s heart skipped several beats as a giant skeletal hand loomed up and pressed against the side of the cavern for support. Whatever this thing was, _it was going to pull itself up to its full height._

“Ms. Kujikawa. Charge me, if you please.” Rise snapped out of her fearful daze as she quickly applied every buff and bonus Kouzeon could give, leaving the knight awash with green light as the monster gave another roar, sending shards of crystal raining down from above. “Now, hold onto my back.”

This request took a little longer to register. “Eh? What?”

“Please, Ms. Kujikawa. We haven’t much time.” Astaire insisted, holding his sword’s blade in front of him. Though his request had come out of nowhere, Rise wasn’t feeling in a very contrarian mood all of a sudden. She quickly leapt onto Astaire’s back and clasped her hands around his shoulders. “Excellent. It’d be a crying shame to leave you behind after all we’ve been through!”

“Huh? What do you-- HEY, HOLD ON A SECOND-!” Rise protested all too late. Astaire took a single step back, kicking off and charging forward with a sudden burst of momentum. Before Rise knew it, he’d leapt off the pathway entirely, into the air above the monster.

Astaire took a deep breath as he raised his sword above his head mid-fall. “Praise the…”

 

* * *

 

 

**_“SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!”_ **

A massive fissure seared across the sky, expanding and grasping out towards the far edges of the desert, the accompanying quakes forcing the Investigation Team to fight for their footing.

“W-Woah! The hell’s goin’ on?!” Shouted a very frantic Kanji as the sand beneath their feet weaved and undulated, like the waves of an ocean amidst a storm. Pieces of the “sky” began hurtling towards the ground, quickly swallowed up by the raging tides of the desert.

All at once, everyone looked towards the fissure and met the cause of their misfortune. From the sky came a plethora of bones and tar, coated in skulls and shadow masks of varying sizes, a pair of bony arms extending upwards as the body fell. The biggest mask of them all was seen shattering into innumerable shards, the source appearing to be a tiny speck on the surface of the monster’s body, something resembling a man with a massive sword embedding his weapon into the monster’s forehead, a strangely-shaped cloak clinging to his neck.

“Dunno about the rest of you, but I feel like running.” Yu said flatly, quickly turning tail and taking off in the opposite direction, everyone else hot on his heels. The amalgamation of bones and masks hit the ground with force and sound rivaling that of an atomic bomb, massive tidal waves of sand threatening to crash down on the valiant team mid-escape.

However fast they scarpered, it quickly became clear that the foreboding hulk of rock and minerals was far too large for anyone to outrun. Everyone could do little else but brace and hoped they made it out alive.

That was, until a green flash of light cascaded over the lot of them, a series of impenetrable barriers shying away the unfathomable weight of the desert that crashed down on top of everyone.

After the biggest crash had subsided, it didn’t take long for the sand to calm down, allowing everyone to claw themselves out of the claustrophobic hell they’d had tossed on top of them.

Chie’s head popped up first, shaking the sand out of her hair. “Ugh, this stuff’s everywhere, I can feel it in my socks and everything!” She complained before noticing she had only herself to complain to. “Uh… guys? Hello?”

“Mmphm, mmpgmh mmm!” Yosuke tried to say through a mouthful of sand as he slowly wriggled his way topside.

Somewhat more impressively, Kanji’s shield was the next to surface, the man himself easily freeing the top half of his body. “Hoo, that was somethin’. Never seen a shadow that big before.”

“You can say that again!” Teddie added, popping up from below Kanji and tossing his out of the hole entirely.

Somehow, despite being a fraction of his size, Naoto and Yukiko were up just as quickly as he was, one tapping the sand out of her hat and the other impatiently trying to fix her hair. “I don’t suppose we’d be lucky enough for that to have been the shadow we came here to fight, would we?” Yukiko asked, ruffling her sweater.

Finally, Yu’s head popped up alongside Chie’s. “That’d be way too easy. But hey, at least it brought Rise with it.”

Everyone’s heads shot around simultaneously, catching the sight of two very different figures running towards them in the distance. The slender one on the right wearing familiar-looking pigtails and the figure on its left, big sword, big armour and big strides.

“Yoohoo, Senpai~!” Rise cooed as she waved. “You guys saw that, right?! Wasn’t that, like, the coolest thing you’ve ever _seen?!_ Bet you never thought this was how we’d meet up, huh?”

The duo stopped short of the group, both of them out of breath and barely withholding their laughter, the massive truckload of adrenaline having nowhere else to go. “Good gods above…” Astaire said between pants. Though his face remained hidden, the wide smile was evident in his voice alone. “...What a rush! Thrilling beyond words! Even I can barely believe we did it!” He half-spoke, half-laughed.

“I know, right?!” Rise added between fits of giddy giggling. “C’mon, high five for a job well done!”

“RIght you are!”

The rest of the team watched completely blank-faced as the two talked back and forth, each as giddy as the other. Yu’s cough was the first sound to catch their attention. “Feel like introducing us, Rise?”

Both idol and knight felt their cheeks redden a tinge as they pulled themselves together. Rise cleared her throat, holding a hand towards Astaire as he put his hands on his hips and struck a heroic pose. “Da da daaa~! Fighter of shadows big and small, Just Astaire!” She finished with a little clap.

Yosuke just about pulled himself out of the hole he was in, spitting out sand from sections of his mouth he didn’t even know were there. “Wait, _just_ Astaire? Doesn’t he have a full-?”

“I’d really rather we didn’t go down that path again, thank you very much.” Astaire added quickly as he bent down to offer Yu his free hand, slowly prying him free from the sandy grasp that held him.

Rise continued, unperturbed. “Astaire-kun helped me fight my way down here! There were so many shadows up there it wasn’t even funny.” She looked up at the mess they’d made of the “sky,” the breathtaking crystal web now but a mere speck amongst overwhelming granite-laden darkness.

“Rise-chan fighting? Unheard of!” Teddie proclaimed, drawing a far-from-pleased reaction from Astaire as he lurched forward.

“I’ll have you know, rotund penguin creature, that without Ms. Kujikawa at my side I’d likely have been pushing up daisies. One fellow with a Zweihander can only do so much, after all.” He planted his mighty weapon in the ground for emphasis, resting his hands on the pommel.

“P-P-Penguin?!” Teddie fumed, stamping the ground in frustration. “How rude! I’ll have you know that I’m…!”

Everyone quickly tuned out as Teddie rattled on, being thoroughly unhelpful in freeing everyone else from the ground as he explained the intricacies of being a bear.

He shut up as Yu clapped his newly-freed hands together, drawing everyone’s attention. “Alright, back to business. Astaire-san, was it? I don’t know how much Rise has told you regarding why we’re here, but we’re looking for someone.” He addressed the knight directly, pointing his sword at him. “Specifically, someone who looks like you. Your shadow.”

Astaire leapt a little on the spot, squaring his shoulders and splaying the fingers of his free hand. “My very own doppelganger? Gracious, that’s a bit worrisome.” Given the human Astaire had the power - with Rise’s help - to punt a shadow bigger than Junes through the sky, that was putting it lightly. “It must be of some import if you’re chasing after it without having known me up until now, however that came about.”

“Yeah, we’re a little puzzled about that too.” Chie piped up. “This kind of thing has happened before, but the way it happened with you is kind of mind-boggling. Unless somebody _did_ throw you in a TV, that is.”

Astaire pitched his head to one side at the mention of a TV. “Chie, I don’t think a guy who dresses like that is going to know what a TV looks like.” Yosuke said, massaging the temples on his shaking head.

“What about fog, then? Anything like that?” Yukiko quickly took over, correctly predicting Yosuke and Chie’s inevitably argument in the background.

Rise looked up as Astaire tapped his foot on the sand, scratching a chin she couldn’t see. “I’m loathe to say it doesn’t ring a bell, sadly. I was exploring the inner reaches of the Grand Archives and found myself being chased by monsters into that surreal cavern of crystal up above us.” He pointed up towards the sky-fissure. “Eventually I walked for so long I couldn’t see where I’d come from. It was around then I heard Ms. Kujikawa’s cries for help and came running.”

An explanation it may have been, but it was no closer to providing a proper answer. No TV, no attempted killer to toss him in, no nothing. Even Rise - more knowledgeable than her friends in what Lordran was at this point - hadn’t the faintest idea. Even with all the pieces out on the table, making the puzzle whole wasn’t becoming much easier.

One thing was for certain, however. “In any case, we need to take care of Astaire-san’s shadow. We can sort out the rest once we’re through.” He hoisted his sword over his shoulder, much like Astaire was doing, and pointed off towards the pyramid. “If the Midnight Channel is to be believed, it was heading in there. We should get a move on.”

“May I accompany you in your efforts?” Astaire called after Yu as he began walking off, turning at the sound of his voice. “If this doppelganger of mine is the reason you’re journeying in this godforsaken place, I’d feel remiss not to lend a hand. Given it wears my face, I feel somewhat responsible. I would be more than willing to lend you my sword, if it suits you.”

Yu opened his mouth to reply, only to quickly clamp it shut again. In any other case, fighting without a Persona would’ve been suicide. Then again, he and Rise _had_ just floored something that could block out the sun. “I don’t see why not. I’d be careful, though. Don’t do anything that might get you killed.”

Astaire’s hood angled back as he laughed. “Hah! Never you fret, it surely wouldn’t be the first time. I look forward to fighting alongside you all!” He enthused, clenching his fist dramatically in front of him.

Something about his choice of words sounded a little… off. Even still, worrying about technicalities wasn’t going to kill shadows, and so Yu turned and resumed kicking up sand as he walked.

Everyone quickly followed after him.Yosuke was the only exception, casting a sideways glance at Astaire as he walked off. The knight shifted in his armour as he caught his eye. “That brown-haired young man worries me. Have I done something wrong?” He asked out of earshot.

“What, Yosuke-senpai? Don’t worry, he can be a little difficult sometimes, but he’s a pretty okay guy once you get to know him.” Rise assured him, reaching up to pat him on his armoured shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll get along great with everyone!” She said, beaming that unfathomably bright smile at him once again.

Somewhere under his hood, Astaire felt a grin curl up his lips. Rise bounced forward and began running after her friends, her new armoured companion bringing up the rear.

 

* * *

 

 

“Well, at least nobody’s getting lost any time soon.” Yosuke commented, hands in his pockets.

The sound of shoes and clinking armour on limestone filled the void as everyone walked single-file along the path, surrounded on all sides by an inky blackness. “This is weird.” Rise astutely noted. “It’s just like the cavern Astaire-kun and I just came down from. Only it’s made of rock instead of crystal.” She gazed around at all the nothingness, hands clasped behind her back as she walked.

“An empty cavern, an empty desert and an empty pyramid.” Yu said, staring dead at the path ahead, for lack of anything else to look at. “And not a shadow to be seen, either. Odd.” Or _Dire,_ as Yu thought internally. Whatever these overwhelming dioramas of emptiness foretold, it had to be linked to Astaire’s deepest thoughts, somehow. Only thing was, there wasn’t much to go off.

Maybe that was the point. But what would it mean if it was?

“It wasn’t entirely empty. That towering shadow was lurking at the bottom of the cavern.” Astaire pointed out, leaning over and peeking at the darkness below them. “Who knows? Maybe there’s a similar beast lying in wait down below us.”

Every hair on Chie’s body stood on end as she froze on the spot. “What?! Y-You’re joking right? There isn’t seriously anything down there, is there?” She turned and clutched at the front of Astaire’s armour, bringing his head closer to hers, eyes manic. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

The final shimmers of light that were once Kouzeon drifted off behind Rise. “Calm down Chie-senpai, there’s nothing down there.” Astaire relaxed as he was released from the sighing dragon’s grasp. “Doesn’t mean there isn’t anything, though. It didn’t look like the darkness in the caverns led anywhere either, and we were right on top of you guys!”

Yosuke turned on a heel, continuing to walk backwards as he faced Rise. “Just because it worked once doesn’t mean it’ll work again. Besides, if you think me or anyone else is jumping down there, you’re nuts.” He said, pointing a knife at his temple and circling it for effect.

“Hey, Sensei?” Teddie piped up.

“If you’re going to start sayin’ you’re bored, you’re the first one gettin’ tossed down there.” Kanji interrupted.

“No, no! Doesn’t it feel like we’re getting a little lighter on our feet?”

Actually, he was right. Now that Teddie pointed it out, something felt different from when they’d first stepped foot inside. Every step felt a little easier than the last. Almost as if--

 _Click._ “I got it!” Teddie clicked his fingers triumphantly. “The path is slowly getting steeper! We’re walking down a hill!”

The sound of Astaire’s armour stopped as he froze in place at Teddie’s realisation. Kneeling down, he ran a gauntlet over the limestone path, switching between examining it and stealing glances behind himself. Given he sounded like a one man band when he walked, it didn’t take long for Rise to twig on and turn around. “What’s up? Something wrong?”

“The ground is no longer even. It’s caving in towards the centre, see?” He laid his sword on the path, pointing at the gap between the blade and the centre of the path. The sides were ever so slightly higher than the middle.

Yukiko turned as well, suddenly interested. “So what? Is that bad?”

Astaire hoisted the sword back up to his shoulder. “Well, see, I once was unlucky enough to have to venture through a location known as ‘Sen’s Fortress…’ “

_BOOM._

The shock ran through the path and up the legs of everyone present. Under his hood, Astaire’s eyes bulged as the familiar sound made his skin crawl on reflex. “Oh Gods.” He turned apprehensively. “That’ll be the boulder.”

It took but a second for everyone to break into a simultaneous sprint.

Hearts pounded, limbs swung, the sound of the boulder encroaching on them putting a spring in everyone’s steps. By now the path wasn’t bothering to conceal its gradually increasingly angle, only serving to increase the rumbling tenfold as the threat of being crushed to death loomed ever closer.

Risking a glance backwards, Teddie’s stubby legs fell out from underneath him as he ground to a halt with his face as the brakes. “Sensei, help me!” Was the last thing anybody heard as the boulder rammed into him from behind, launching the poor bear off into the distance.

Naoto yelled over the rumbling. "We can't keep going on like this! The boulder's going to catch up to us eventually! We're going to have to jump!"

"Are you outta your friggin' mind?! I’m with Yosuke-senpai, you’d have to be- HEY!” Kanji’s voice broke towards the end as Naoto roughly took hold of the back of his collar and leapt over the edge of the path.

“ _Naoto-kun!_ ” Rise squealed as Kanji’s screams echoed on the way down. “What’re we going to do?! We don’t know what’s down there!”

“Well it’s either get killed by a rogue boulder or risk getting killed by whatever’s down there! At least one of them has a chance, however faint!” Feeling the boulder begin to lick at the backs of his sabatons, Astaire brusquely latched onto Rise’s hand and took a leap of faith.

Unable to see if anyone else had jumped, the two could only brace for impact as Astaire quickly cradled Rise in his arms, closing his eyes and waiting for the impact.

Whatever the two wound up landing on, it wasn’t solid ground. It did little to lessen the shock of it all, however. Astaire and Rise both tensed up as they made contact, one pulling the other closer solely out of every muscle in his body contracting and the other squaring her shoulders as she let out a short squeak, eyes covered.

As her hands fell away, the only thing she could make out was Astaire’s hood. Everything else was so dark that seeing beyond right in front of her was hopeless. Immediately, she was transfixed with curiosity. He’d kept his face hidden all this time, it was only natural to want to look underneath. She leaned in closer, swearing she could make out something underneath the layers of cloth.

“Ms. Kujikawa?”

His voice broke her transfixation as she realised the position they were in. Her held in his arms and leaning into his face. Notably, he wasn’t leaning in return. “Sorry, sorry! Gosh, I just… I don’t know what came over me!” She insisted, quickly planting her own two feet on the… whatever the heck they had landed on.

Heaves and grunts came from below her as she stood to her full height. Whatever they’d landed in, Astaire was knee-deep in it. “I’m sorry, but as much as I’d like to take this off, I’d rather not.” He finally freed a leg and pulled himself up, struggling to maintain balance on uneven footing. “You have your secrets, I have mine. For now, let’s focus on finding your friends.”

Sitting on in silence, Rise’s eyes widened as the green-crested shield Astaire had been carrying disappeared without a trace. Even if it was merely a trick of the eyes because it was so dark, where the heck could he have put it? The question scarpered as Astaire brought out something to replace it. A skull, suspended by a scant few strands of hair.

“ _What the hell?! Why do you have something like that?!”_  Rise’s hands flew to her mouth as she spoke, unable to take her eyes off the _literal freaking skull Astaire pulled out of his pockets and had been carrying around this entire time._ Holy crap it was creepy.

Opting for a demonstration instead of an explanation, the knight held his macabre artifact aloft, a soft orange glow enveloping he and his charge as several blue orbs appeared from the ether above them.

“Don’t be alarmed, it’s only a Skull Lantern. I know it’s a bit gruesome looking, but it’s the best we’ve got to work with. Now, how best to go about finding everyone else?” Right on cue, the sound of crunching and a stifled yell from behind gave the two a heading. Yet as Astaire took the lead to light their way, Rise was unfortunate enough to catch sight of what they were walking on.

Hysteria. Rise reeled back, screaming as loud as she unconsciously could, everywhere she looked only serving to worsen the situation. Her arms cradled her head as her screams grew louder, as though trying to block out the effects of everything around her and failing.

They were corpses.

Masses upon masses upon masses of corpses. Enough corpses for there to be hills and declines to walk over. All of them with sunken black sockets in place of eyes and stretched, horribly reddened skin, numerous wounds punctuating what brought them to their end.

Every attempted step away from the horror gave a sickening sinking feeling as Rise’s weight sunk whatever body part she’d stepped on, turning her stomach and only lengthening her mania. She didn’t even stop as Astaire relinquished his equipment to grasp her by the shoulders. “Ms. Kujikawa, please calm down!” He said, lightly shaking her. “I know it’s a horrifying sight, believe me, I do! But if we don’t keep our wits about us, we’re liable to wind up lying amongst these sorry souls ourselves! Please, do try to settle yourself!”

His iron grip on her shoulders ran through the fear which gripped her. Hyperventilating after she ran out of screams, focusing on the knight’s grip was the most Rise could manage in order to calm herself. This was screwed beyond belief. It was like something out of a nightmare. But if nothing else, it was a nightmare she need not traverse alone. She’d come this far to meet her friends, and damn it all if Inaba wasn’t worth it.

Finally, Rise let out a long, sustained sigh, as though exhaling any screams she might have left. “Alright, alright. I think I can do this. Thank you, Astaire-kun.” The knight nodded at her contentedly, retrieving his equipment and holding up the lante--

“Oh, there you--”

Corpses and corpse piles? Easy peasy. No problem.

_Something standing up in the middle of said corpse pile?_

“ _GOOD GODS ABOVE!”_  Astaire leapt back in fright as the lantern lit up a face mere inches from his own, landing him flat on his back and narrowly avoiding Rise.

The figure he’d been faced with scratched the back of its head. “Ah, shit. Thought you’d heard me walkin’ up here, sorry ‘bout that.”  It said with Kanji’s voice.

“Kanji-kun!” Rise rushed up to the larger figure, eyes lighting up as a smaller one joined him. “And Naoto-kun! Thank goodness you two are okay!”

Naoto nodded, hand on her hip. “We are indeed. Though I’m not sure if the same can be said for our senpai…” She said, biting her thumbnail.

Finally having righted himself from the biggest shock since the Tomb of the Giants, Astaire lit the Skull Lantern yet again. “Then we shall sally forth, post-haste. Proceeding further without everyone present would be unwise.”

At the cry of “Persona!” from Yukiko in the distance, everyone took off in the one direction, huddling around Astaire’s light like moths to a flame.

“Gah, this is frickin’ disgusting!” Kanji moaned as the sickening sound of flesh being stepped on followed in their wake. “Wonder how these poor bastards wound up like this in the first place?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. They don’t look New Londo’s mass graves, they were all drowned.” Naturally, nobody had a clue what ‘New Londo’ was, but they understood the implications of mass drowning. “These lot were done in using a sword, from the looks of it. I daresay they even match the wounds my Zweihander would inflict.” Astaire noted, taking in the corpses with deep gashes in their backs and those which were split from shoulder to chest.

Running beside Kanji, Naoto’s face seemed a shade paler than usual, but collected all the same. “These bodies… do you think they belong to people you’ve killed before, then?”

Rise looked about ready to stick up for Astaire, a look of disgust crossing her face. Thankfully, he stuck up for himself. “Not people. Hollows.” The chorus of confused noises that followed told him to continue. “Hollows were formerly Undead, who themselves were once human. This is the bottommost run on the ladder of humanity. It is the inevitable fate of all Undead to become Hollows, at which point they lose what little of their mind remains and become mindless killing machines.”

Needless to say everybody was even more uncomfortable than they had been previously. Not only were they walking on the bodies of dead people, but they were also walking on a sea of undead zombie-like monsters. Lovely.

Their unease made them all the more relieved to finally meet up with the rest of the group, bar Teddie, who seemed to have been tossed off elsewhere. Yu and Yukiko were gathered around an injured Chie and Yosuke, who had apparently had a less-than-pleasant landing.

Yosuke groaned as Yukiko tended to his wounds. "Why the hell did you drag me along?! I could've outrun that boulder, no sweat!"

"Yeah, for about 10 seconds maybe! You should be thankful I pulled you out of that thing's way when I did!" Chie retorted as Yu bandaged her head.

"You broke my freaking arm!"

"And I'll break the other one too if you don't give it a rest!" Not even the most severe of injuries could keep the two from arguing, it seemed. The only thing to stop the sparks of fury flying was the orange glow Chie found in front of her face. Astaire had knelt in front of her, handing her what looked like a glowing bottle. “Eh? What’s this thing?”

“It’s an Estus Flask. Take a sip and you’ll feel right as rain.” Chie stared at the glowing concoction briefly before taking a swig. No sooner had the first few drops run down her throat, she shot up straight, doubled over in a coughing fit. She looked at Astaire with murderous fury burning in her eyes. Were it not for the horrific feeling still lingering in her throat, she felt like she could have punted him right back to the Crystal Caverns. “Alright then, your turn.” Astaire turned, handing the flask to Yosuke.

As much as he tried backing away, his broken arm was having other ideas. “Are you insane?! There’s no way in this lifetime or the next that I’m swallowing something that does… _that!”_ He pointed accusingly at Chie, who was still coughing up a storm.

“Oh right, your arm. Never worry, I’ll manage it myself.” Astaire assured as he knelt down next to his newest victim and had the flask in his mouth before he could protest further.

Fire. It was liquid fire. Yosuke had never drunk burning gasoline before, but it had to be awfully similar. The rancid, rotting taste rolling down his throat, as though it were melting his flesh on the way down. The heartburn that made him want to claw it clean out of his chest. He kicked and splayed his legs out in protest right up until the flask left his lips, leaving him heaving. His arms desperately grasped out at the darkness, looking for--

Wait, _both arms?_

Yosuke peered at his right arm in awe. It looked good as could be. Brand new, like it’d never been broken in the first place. All pain was gone.

“Why you… I’ll choke you out of that armour you… you…!” Chie started as she reached for Astaire, only to realise that the leg she had broken was the one she was putting her weight on. “Oh! Oh wow, that’s amazing!” She said, a complete 180 from how she’d been not a second ago.

The change of mood from both Yosuke and Chie left the group feeling somewhat lighter in the chest, considering they had gone from pained to bloodthirsty to flabbergasted in the space of two minutes.

“Well, now that that’s sorted, don’t you think we should start looking for Teddie?” Yu asked, tapping his foot impatiently.

“Easier said than done, Partner. I mean…” Yosuke looked around, taking in the sheer amount of corpses around them. “...look at the size of this place! It just goes on forever and ever! How are we supposed to find anyone in here?”

On cue, Astaire held the Skull Lantern aloft, bringing back the blue orbs above them. “Good thing I’ve got this, then. Those blues lights should show us where to go.” Everyone turned to him at once, looks ranging from questioning to disbelief. “I mean, that’s what they did the last time.”

“It might be a trap.” Yosuke butted in. “A trap these things are leading us to on purpose.”

Astaire waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, nonsense. It just shows you where to go.” He shrugged. “And if there should just _happen_ to be traps on the way there, well…”

“Either way, they seem to be the only things giving us a clear heading. I say we follow them.” Yu added, looking between everyone.

Before Yosuke could issue a protest, Naoto stepped forward, thoughtfully massaging her chin. “There’d be little gained from putting traps in place beyond the immediate path forward. I too think it might be beneficial to follow the lights.”

"Oh, oh! This happened in a movie once, where the protagonist was investigating a tomb and the exit was right there, but then they fell down into a pit as they ran for it!" Chie suggested, getting odd glances from everyone else. Her face turned bright red as she turned away. “S-So, we just gotta avoid the traps and we’re golden, right? Right?”

Kanji’s eyes lit up at Chie’s words, a fire in him newly kindled. He pumped his fists excitedly. "Oh, I'm hyped now! There's no way we can lose to this stupid tomb or whatever it is!"

Kanji held his hand out to the group, who began placing theirs on top one by one. Rise and Astaire were the last to do so, the young girl looking up at where Astaire's face was under his hood. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I don't like the feeling I get from this place… It's like something's waiting for us at the end of those lights, and I'm not sure we can—"

"We can." Yu stopped her, giving her a self-assured nod as a smile crept across her face. "We all can, if we work together." Rise's hand joined the group, leaving the wandering knight as the sole outsider.

Astaire paused momentarily. He wasn't sure why, but as his hand extended towards the group's, something spoke from within him. A quiet, fleeting voice which came and went so quickly he wasn't sure he'd heard anything at all.

_“Don't do it."_

_“Just, don't do it, they're evil.”_

_“Why? Won't you listen to me?”_

_“Not even to your best friend?”_

The quick series of whispers flew through his head and left without a trace. He'd been in this situation before. He could feel it inside. But when? Certainly not in Lordran, but where else could it have been?

"Astaire-kun?" Rise's voice cleared Astaire's head as he saw the group looking at him expectantly. Despite the voice's protests, Astaire's armoured hand rested atop Rise's. He felt the warm sensation even through his gauntlets, bring a smile to his shrouded face.

"Alright, now somebody say something inspiring!" Chie announced excitedly.

" _PRAISE THE SUN!_ " Everyone leapt as Astaire bellowed his battle cry, his hand the only one that flew upwards.

Well, that didn't work.

Kanji raised an eyebrow. "What's "Praise the Sun" mean?" His words seemed to echo everyone else's thoughts. Astaire scratched the back of his head and gave an uncomfortable laugh. Nevertheless, with another almighty cry of "Praise the Sun!" The group split apart and mobilised, a renewed spring in everyone's step.

 

* * *

 

 

Following the lights cast by Astaire’s lantern, it became evident that the unfathomable mound of corpses was coming to an end. Where once was flesh was now replaced with an earthy, moss-coloured floor. As they walked, a blue fog seemed to roll in from the group’s peripheral vision, unlike any fog in any other part of the TV World.

Further on, trees began to spring up. Dead trees, but trees all the same. What was now a foggy forest seemed to go on endlessly, the fog obscuring any end which might otherwise have been in sight. “Still getting a reading, Ms. Kujikawa?” Astaire had taken up a frontal position beside Yu, who kept rubbing at his glasses frustratedly.

“Yeah, but Teddie’s in a different place again! Ugh, this stupid fog is the worst!” She said, stamping a foot, fists balled. “I think we’re just walking in circles at this point!”

All of a sudden, the fog thickened tenfold. A strangely familiar voice seemed to resonate from every direction at once, speaking to everyone while the source concealed itself. “Around in circles? Well doesn’t that sound familiar?” Astaire’s breath seemed to catch in his throat. “Yes, that’s right. You know who I am, don’t you?”

The fog lifted like a thick white curtain, revealing the surroundings to have changed again. To everyone else, it was a mass gathering of ruined stone structures and the remains of buildings.

To Astaire, it was Firelink Shrine.

The area sloped down into one central section on the edge of a cliff, where an armour-clad figure sat on its hands and knees, its hooded head hung low.

“Th-That’s--!” Yu started, cut off as Astaire approached the knight himself. Part of Yu wanted to stop him, but another part knew there was no point. This was how it had to be.

Contrary to the voice which had taunted them in the fog, the knight could be heard sobbing quietly to himself. “Please. I beg of thee. End my suffering. Free me from this nightmare I’ve had thrust upon me.” He began, tears falling to the ground from under his hood.

The fellow looked exactly like him, Astaire noted. This must have been the doppelganger he’d been told about. Still, it didn’t _seem_ too harmful. It felt only right to stay his blade for the time being. “What troubles you, Sir Knight? What has driven you to the state you now sit in?”

“This world is without an end, as am I. My efforts are for naught. An endless task is mine, yet I can do naught about it.” The doppelganger clenched its fists on the ground. “Damn them. Damn them all. The Lords, the fire, the dark, _all of it_!” He pounded his fists off the ground, now in a full-on tantrum. “It’s pointless, damn them! I don’t want to suffer at their hands any longer!”

Somewhere under his hood, Astaire scoffed, now laying another hand on his sword. Though they couldn’t see his face, it sounded like he was baring his teeth. “How dare you! Speaking against Lord Gwyn and his ilk is heathenry of the highest order! Without them there would be no world in the first place, and yet you sit here bawling like a coward!”

It was the first time anyone had heard him get so riled up. Apparently this ‘Lord Gwyn’ was a big deal.

“And yet you think it all the same.” The doppelganger spoke. Much slower. Much more calm. It rose to its feet, turning to face Astaire proper.

The response wasn’t what Astaire had anticipated. “I-- What?”

“Feign fealty to them all you like. I know the truth. Walking in circles for all eternity. Tasked with an impossible mission, all in favour of your Lord of Sunlight. Were you to take your final breath now, it would curse the old Lords until your end.”

“That’s a lie. You know nothing of me.” The knight spat.

“And yet you continue.” The doppelganger ignored its counterpart. “And for what? You could sit and go hollow right here and make as much of a difference. So why carry on? Why not just rot and perish? Then at least you’d be free.”

“The world is counting on me to link the fire. I must-”

“Death.” Astaire was cut off. “To partake in the blood of others. To fight, die, and fight again. To see those you face fall to your blade over and over and over without end. There is nothing else here for you.” The doppelganger pointed an accusatory finger at him. “What better way to rebel against the Lords than by killing every last one of them? To kill everyone in Lordran and then some!? _To slay everyone that the fire might bring salvation to nobody, should it be linked or otherwise?!”_

“ _ENOUGH!”_  Everyone leapt as Astaire roared, now holding the doppelganger at swordpoint. “Your knowledge is astoundingly weak. How could you possibly think any of that… _bile_ applies to me?!”

The doppelganger seemed to spawn two glowing yellow orbs underneath the darkness of the hood, which locked with Astaire’s under his own. “ _Because I AM you.”_

It was the answer everyone had seen coming a mile away. This was indeed Astaire’s shadow. “Lies! You sound nothing like me! Your attempts to besmirch my name are pathetic at best!”  Though the real Astaire was having none of it, swiping an arm as he hissed at his shadow.

“What’s the worry? It’s not like you couldn’t fix everything, right? You’ve done it so many times before, after all.”

The shadow began marching towards its owner who, to Rise’s surprise, began _backing off_ in lockstep. “What do you mean?! What are you saying?!” Any semblance of composure Astaire had been keeping down was now far gone, the end of his sword visibly shaking.

“You have bested your Lord of Sunlight in combat eighteen times. Nine times you chose to succeed him, and nine times you walked away. What difference did it make? None.” The shadow raised its arms and gazed toward the sky. “You have beaten countless gods time and time again, and despite being one of the most powerful beings in the land, nothing has changed.” Before he could stop him, Astaire felt a set of armoured fingers wrap about his hood.

“ _Well, almost nothing.”_

The shadow sneered as it swiftly tugged upward. Of all those observing the act, none failed to skip a beat. None more so than Naoto and Rise.

On top of Astaire’s shoulders stood a head with stretched, unhealthy skin, barely clinging to the skull underneath. It was stretched so far it looked on the verge of splitting. Where there should have been eyes under his dark, matted hair, only sunken, dark sockets remained. His mouth gaped, lipless and muscular.

Astaire was an Undead.

Realisation sunk in as he turned to face everyone, the likes of Chie, Kanji and Yosuke recoiling at the sight, with everyone else blank with shock. Rise included. “No… No!” Astaire’s sword dropped, as did he, as he backed off and clipped a stray brick embedded in the ground. He hung his head, trying his very best to hide behind his arms. “Don’t look at me… _DON’T LOOK AT ME!”_ He cried hysterically, sounding on the verge of tears himself.

“You can feel it drawing closer, can’t you?” The shadow continued, uncaring of the state its creator was in. “The curse of the Darksign rotting you inside and out, your mind sifting away like sand through your fingers. Your wanton bloodlust reaching a fever pitch.” Again, the shadow sneered as it squatted down to face Astaire. “I’m surprised you haven’t turned on these people and killed them all already.”

Astaire scrambled to his feet, clumsily bringing his Zweihander back to his side as his rotten, undead face screwed into an expression of fervent anger. “ _Shut up! Cease your incessant bickering, damn you!”_ He roared, all semblance of self control lost.

“What a tragic tale!” The shadow gestured dramatically, dancing around in circles. “Doomed to eternal lordly service with no return in sight, doomed to trying to save a world beyond salvation and _doomed to give in to your insatiable, burning urge to kill as a result, hiding behind your Warriors of Sunlight as an excuse._ ”

The contrast between Astaire and his shadow was like night and day. Not that anyone had expected anything different, such was the way with all shadows, but this one? This was the shadow of someone they had no clue about. A situation where they couldn’t even begin to guess what plagued them. Rise felt her stomach twist at the thought of the person they’d come here to save being one of the monsters he himself had described, a being doomed to mindlessness.

A similar thought clawed at Naoto. Imagining how it must have felt to end the lives of so many, enough to create a mass grave large enough to walk on, that was bad enough. Doing it with the knowledge that he was doomed to one day turn into one and be no better off?

How could anyone relate? What could anyone say?

Astaire swung his sword uselessly as the shadow crept up on him once again, forcing him back with every step. “You unscrupulous letch! My service to Lord Gwyn is anything but an excuse! No true Warrior of Sunlight would ever say, nay, even _think_ such rancid thoughts! You’re nothing like me!”

Before anyone could open their mouths to stop him, it was too late.

_“YOU’RE NOT ME!”_

Silence fell as Astaire’s shout echoed around the ruins, his maddened panting the only other noise to be heard.

Then his shadow began to laugh. A twisted, unsound laugh that quickly escalated into absolute mania. A laugh that ended only when it tore off its own hood, revealing the same undead face as Astaire’s underneath, a pair of glowing yellow orbs of light in its sockets. “ _Not anymore, I’m not.”_

Everyone readied their weapons. Yu, Naoto, Kanji and Yukiko shot off to surround the shadow as it began drawing in dark energy in the familiar manner, everyone bracing for when it would transform.

Suddenly, the gathering stopped. The shadow remained unchanged. “Actually, I think this form will do just fine.” The shadow sneered cockily, leaning on its own Zweihander and beckoning towards Yu. “As if I need to be any stronger than I am.” Its newfound cocky attitude annoyed Yu, but all the same he held firm. Getting riled up was no doubt what it wanted.

His only wish was that someone had told Astaire that.

“You bastard! I’ll see you quartered!” Astaire said through clenched, rotten teeth. He was already mid-swing, aiming for the shoulder of his yellow-eyed imposter as he bellowed in fury.

Without even looking, the shadow whipped around on the spot and swatted away the sword with its own, knocking Astaire off balance. “I am a shadow. The true self.” It said, clutching what looked like a scrap of canvas in its hand. “I shall lay waste to you and this world both.”

Astaire could do nothing but watch in shock as Wrath of the Gods hit him, the unimaginable force launching him back like a tossed ragdoll. He didn’t even have time to yell as he disappeared over the edge of the cliff.

“ _ASTAIRE-KUN!”_ Rise screamed in shock. But it was too late.

A collective gasp was drawn from everyone present. They’d failed. For the first time, they’d come in to protect someone and watched them be sent to their death right in front of their eyes. It was a possibility they’d never even considered.

Yu gripped his sword ever tighter. They’d failed to protect the shadow’s owner, but that didn’t meant they couldn’t beat the hell out of the shadow itself.

The shadow moved first, a feverish flame sprouting from the hand it dropped to the floor. Immediately the area was ablaze, massive pillars of fire rising from the ground, mounds of lava left in their wake. Yu leapt out of the way at the last second, wiping the fresh layer of sweat off his brow.

“Senpai, watch out!” Naoto yelled just in time for Yu to catch sight of the shadow, Zweihander primed to strike as it leapt through the wall of flame. Yu put his sword between the two, only for the superior weight of the opposition to completely blow him away, landing him on his back.

It felt like his body was on fire. Whatever power inhabited that sword, it wasn’t only heavy, but _hot._ As hot at the pillars of fire and then some. The shadow loomed over him, sword over its head and ready to crush him flat. “It ain’t gonna be _that_ easy, asshole! _Takeji-Zaiten!”_ Kanij’s voice drew the shadow’s attention long enough to see Takeji-Zaiten’s sword looming towards him. The grey-haired one could wait. A well-timed dodge roll sent the Persona’s blade flying uselessly over his head.

The dodge roll sent Kanji’s foot usefully into his face. “Let’s see you keep up that fire magic with my foot up your ass!” With the shadow stunned, Kanji aimed for its sword hand and brought his chair down, freeing the fiery blade from its grasp. Grinning confidently, he let the chair lie and rounded up a punch, aiming straight for the undead son of a bitch’s nose.

He only got so far before he realised her error. The shadow lashed out a parry with its shield, throwing off Kanji’s punch and leaving him wide open. Now swordless, it returned with one of its own, right to the gut. Kanji felt the wind knock out of him as he fell to his knees, floored by the punch to his jaw after.

The shadow grinned, cracking its armoured knuckles. “I’ve faced gods more times than I can count. What makes you think you’re anything special?”

“ _Sumeo-Okami!””_ The fiery explosion that sent it flying back gave him an answer. Recovering from the hit, the shadow scooped up its sword before Kanji could stop him, sending a fireball in Yukiko’s direction as cover.

Of course, Yukiko being Yukiko, the flames dissipated uselessly around her. “What?! An immunity to fire?!” The shadow seethed. “Nobody in Lordran could have such a power!” An immunity to fire meant his sword would be useless too. Damnit. Damnit, damnit!

If she wasn’t going to be easy killed, the other one would be. The shadow locked eyes with the Detective Prince, shooting her a wicked grin. The young detective saw his attempt to rile her up and denied him the pleasure, but at the same time her concern for Kanji was slowly beginning to overpower her strong sense of logic. She rose her pistol and steadied her aim. “Your methods are medieval at best. If I were you I’d surrender while I could.” Naoto said softly, running a coarse finger over the hammer.

“Oh, give over.” The shadow inhaled deeply, lurching forward and spewing forth a poisonous cloud from its mouth. Naoto’s aimed wavered. Not only because she hadn’t expected him to breath poison, but because the cloud was so thick that aiming was impossible.

The rancid cloud threatened to swallow her whole. Seeing no other option, she kicked off from her offensive position while covering her mouth with her sleeve and controlling her breaths. The moment she felt the weight of the shadow slam into her, she knew it’d been a mistake. No match for someone as tall as Kanji wearing armour, Naoto slammed against a stone wall at full force.

The few shots she managed through her trauma-inflicted haziness tore through the shadow’s armour, yet still it stood. “That feels dangerous, that does. I think I’ll be rid of you first.” It growled, drawing the Zweihander back as though to run her through.

“Like hell you will!” Kanji’s arm wrapped around the shadow’s neck, unable to be pried off thanks to the massive sword taking up his hands. “Try dodging this, you creepy-lookin’ freak! _Ziodyne!”_ With strength fueled by a mix of rage and adrenaline, Kanji wrenched the shadow around and outright threw him towards the bonfire, right into the full might of Takeji-Zaiten’s Ziodyne.

The massive bolt of electricity sent a tingle around the bodies of everyone present, such was its power. The brilliant, blinding flash of light subsided quickly, the shadow spasming on the ground from the shock. It was down, but it was definitely still alive.

Naoto accepted the hand Kanji offered her, quickly taking aim again as the shadow weakly got back on its feet. “Such power… Is but a fraction of what I’ve been through! The Lord of Sunlight would scoff at your efforts!” Though its words were scathing and confident, its mannerisms were anything but. Bent over, one arm limp and the other wrapped around its chest. “But it seems I underestimated what you could do in a group. Looks like I’ll have to cheat a little.”

A black fog began drawing in and wrapping around the shadow, the additional power the TV World offered mixing with its own. Yu looked on wide-eyed as Yukiko’s Diarahan got rid of the intense burning within him. This was it. This would be its massive, True Shadow form. If it was anything like the normal one, it’d be no easy fight.

“Tremble before the true might of the Chosen Undead, Vanquisher of Lords and--”

“Oh, shut up already! You’re giving me a headache!” Came a familiar voice from somewhere. Whoever had spoken, Yu just about caught a glimpse of their figure leaping into the black fog. As the sound of a struggle between shadow and intruder took over, it caught Yu’s eye that the fog, once swirling and chaotic, had ceased moving.

This was their chance. “ _Izanagi-no-Okami!”_ The golden figure emerged from the air behind Yu, its very presence weighting the atmosphere. It struck as pose as a massive gale of wind tore at the dark fog, striking the shadow in turn.

“Yeowch! Sensei! Watch where you’re casting that kind of stuff!”

Yu’s eyes widened as Teddie’s voice shouted over the gale, the newly cleared view revealing him to be locking arms with Astaire’s shadow. One was pressing against the other, trying to get the other to move and failing each time. Seeing his moment to strike, Yu swept up behind the shadow just as its glowing eyes met his. Feeling as though his body was moving on its own, Yu plunged his sword into its back, sending it to the ground as he withdrew it. Blood soaked his blade and the ground as the supposed Lordslayer lay flat on its back.

The shadow was done. It lay silent, opting instead of lock eyes with its assailants as they gathered around.

“Well? Not so frickin’ mouthy now, are ya?” Kanji mocked.

“That thing…” The shadow weakly turned to face Teddie, who had returned to Chie and Yosuke’s sides. “What in Gwyn’s name is it?”

“I’m everybody’s favourite Junes-brand heartthrob, Teddie!” Teddie announced proudly, striking a pose as he jabbed a thumb at his chest.

“I see.” The shadow set its head on the ground, looking close to passing out. “You never did introduce yourselves, you know. Ms. Kujikawa notwithstanding.” As everybody prepared to object, they realised it was right. “Alone in this damnable world of the Undead, and only one of you even gave him a name to call you by. Any wonder he felt so pathetically alone.”

“Alone?” Rise inquired, kneeling down to meet the unsightly undead warrior face-to-face. “You never mentioned anything about that when you were taunting Astaire-kun earlier.”

“Just because I never brought it up doesn’t mean it’s untrue. No form of companionship is permanent in this world. Not one.” The shadow closed its eyes, looking somewhat content. “Luckily, you only find that out at the end. Looks like he’ll never have to make it that far though, huh?” It cackled weakly.

The group looked amongst each other. They’d been so caught up in finding the shadow that they forgot to show concern for its owner. Even without his odd-sounding past, it’d have been enough to make any of them feel terrible.

“ _GOT YOU NOW, MOTHERFUCKER!”_  There was a deafening explosion of sound as a massive blade ripped apart the defenceless shadow on the ground, shattering it into innumerable tiny pieces. The ground shook as several stone structures toppled from the sheer might of the impact.

A very satisfied, albeit partially deranged looking, Knight Astaire stood with his undead hands on the hilt, panting heavily. “Hah! The real Knight Astaire would never have been so careless! I knew you were an imposter!”

A pregnant silence followed, in which everyone’s eyes slowly turned towards Astaire. He’d just taken out his own shadow.

He’d also just said ‘motherfucker,’ which hardly seemed very knightly. But that was beside the point.

As the euphoric rush of adrenaline and victorious pride seeped away, the sunken-eyed knight began taking notice of the attention. He glanced between Yu, Rise, Teddie, then back to Rise again, biting down on where his lower lip should have been.

“Was I… not supposed to do that?”


	2. Welcome to the Velvet Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unexpected awakening, an explanation, and a new set of clothes.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room."

These were the first words Astaire heard as he began to come back to his senses again. He wasn't quite sure what had happened to relieve him of them in the first place, but that wasn't his biggest concern. His eyes opened slowly, meeting the roof of the place he now sat in. It was a low roof, and for a panicked moment, Astaire briefly considered that he had been slid into a coffin at some point. Thankfully, this was not the case. As Astaire righted himself in the seat he found himself in, he met the eyes of a very curious looking man on the other side of this "Velvet Room."

The man's face barely moved as he spoke. "Hmm… most interesting. Most interesting indeed." He said slowly. His eyes seemed almost maniacal, but his voice was soothing and was brimming with an impression of deep wisdom held within each word. He peered over his comically long nose, sizing up Astaire as he sat before him. The aforementioned knight gawked around the enclosed area, seeing a foggy environment passing by them outside several of the small windows embedded in the sides. A distinct rumbling sound could be heard underneath this area, but Astaire couldn't quite place what it was. He had never seen anything like this before.

Speaking of things he wasn't seeing, Astaire recalled that this wasn't the place where he had lost consciousness. "Where… am I? This certainly doesn't look like Firelink Shrine." As he pushed himself slightly off the chair to examine his surroundings further, Astaire noted that he felt much lighter and less bulky than he had in ages. It only occurred to him then, but upon looking at himself he saw that his armour had gone. In its place, he wore a long blue trench coat with thick golden buttons running up the front. "…and where are my things?!" He said loudly.

The man simply smiled his wide smile as he answered. "First things first. My name is Igor. I am delighted to make your acquaintance."

"Ah…" Astaire berated himself for forgetting his manners despite his situation, it was unbecoming of a knight. "I am Knight Astaire, an adherent of the Lord of Sunlight." He replied.

Igor seemed satisfied with his response. "Very good. As for where you are, this place exists between dreams and reality, mind and matter. It exists, but to some it has never existed at all. Only those who have entered a contract can come here." Upon saying this, Igor pointed a finger in Astaire's direction. "…Except you, it would appear."

Before Astaire could begin to demand an explanation, Igor gave him one. "It is not very often that we receive uninvited guests in the Velvet Room. Truth be told, the parameters that allowed for our meeting here have… intrigued me."

"You and I both." Astaire added. "This doesn't feel like the sort of place where someone could simply waltz in uninvited. Do you have any idea how I got here?"

"An idea, yes. But it is little more than that, a theory." Said Igor. "In the time you have sat in this room, I have looked extensively at the events leading up to your arrival. If my understanding is sound, I think we might get to the bottom of this." Finally moving something other than his finger, the mysterious fellow waved his hand, producing a small television atop the table in front of him. Oddly, Astaire felt a sort of familiarity with the device, despite one having never been in Lordran.

The screen flashed on, showing the crystal cavern which Astaire had met Rise in. "Let us start at the beginning. I believe you said it best yourself," Igor began, before the TV took over.

"...the flow of time and space is a little queer, with warriors and legends from across the world congregating and phasing in and out of existence…" Astaire's voice said from within the box. Needless to say the voice's owner was curious as to how exactly Igor had procured footage of him saying this, but he was more interested in exactly where he was going with it all.

"It is my belief that this unsteady flow of time and space in your dimension caused it to… collide with the one you ended up in. However, the world has done so many times before. You did not even notice the change."

"…Hm. So in other words, Lordran's abnormal nature caused me to walk into another dimension entirely? How very odd." Astaire thought to himself as he let Igor continue.

The screen changed, showing the outside of the desert-like area where Astaire and Rise had met everyone else. "At this moment, the worlds became intertwined. The other world sensed your presence and applied its rules to create the areas you trekked through during your stay. Picture it like your world keeping you on a leash, and the other refusing to let go of you."

Astaire could feel a headache quickly begin to form behind his eyes with all this thinking.

"This is likely the cause of your appearance, as well as the prolonged nature of your stay." The screen flashed once again, showing the inside of the pyramid, as well as other architecture Astaire recognised. The boulders and stone walkways from Sen's Fortress. The mounds of bodies from not-quite-New-Londo and finally, Firelink Shrine.

"This is where things become… complex." Igor lamented, although not as much as Astaire, who was under the impression that things had been quite complex enough for his liking thus far. "It was during this time that you met your shadow. You denied it, causing it to turn on your new comrades. Shortly afterwards, after the shadow was weakened, you made a very unconventional decision."

Somehow, Astaire could tell where this was going.

"Instead of accepting your shadow as a part of yourself, you outright destroyed it. Abolished it. Obliterated it beyond any recognition, and this is where our current predicament lies."

"Wait a minute." The young knight interrupted, earning a curious look from Igor. "Are you telling me… that wasn't an impostor? It was actually me?" Igor nodded in confirmation. "Oh, curses. This is all my fault…"

"Do not despair. There may be a better outcome to this than you know." Admittedly, this made Astaire curious. Raising his head, he listened on as Igor continued. "Your destroying of your shadow did two things. The first was that it destroyed the world created in your mind, where you stood. At that moment, all was wiped from the world, presumably because of the damage caused in your mind due to the mental assault you dealt on yourself."

He could have been taking this the wrong way, but Astaire could have sworn that Igor was trying to say he had given himself brain damage. "The second thing this attack did was sever your link to this world. Due to this, for a fleeting moment, the two worlds had their connection broken. You could not return to your world, because it really no longer existed. Likewise, you could not stay rooted in the other world, as it too had been destroyed completely. This left only one place for you to go…"

"A place between dream, reality, mind and matter…" Echoing Igor's words, Astaire finally came to understand. For a moment, all was lost to him on the physical plane, leaving him stranded in the next best thing.

With an air of finality, Igor swept his hand over the TV, replacing it with a single card, a woman lying across it horizontally, with some manner of beasts underneath. "Your arcana would have been that of Lust. However…" The card shattered as Igor touched it, splitting into microscopic pieces. "…you have not accepted yourself, and as such do not hold the right to wield such power. My condolences."

Waving his hand dismissively, Astaire tried to put on a smile. "It's fine, really. My time in Lordran has given my plenty of power, I shall require no other to perform my duty." As the thought of performing his knightly deeds came to mind, Astaire couldn't help but wonder how exactly he would perform his tasks inside this strange room he was in. He voiced his concerns to Igor, who summoned another TV, a bigger one this time, in front of him.

"While you cannot return to Lordran, you can return to another dimension all the same. The world of humans awaits beyond this gate, if you wish to enter." Well, that was all Astaire needed to hear. Not that Igor was bad company or anything, but at the same time he felt that living amongst other people who wouldn't try to kill him sounded like a nice offer. He reached out his gloved hand to the TV, before stopping to look at Igor once again.

"Wait, that doesn't explain why you changed me into this garb! I'm sorry for being so insistent but I need to know why you did it." He said, pinching the lapels of his new jacket.

"Hmmm. I'm afraid I only have Margaret's word to go on. From what she told me, you were somewhat... under-equipped, upon your arrival."

Wait. _Wait._

Astaire immediately turned bright pink. Margaret was a woman's name. He'd showed up in this odd room and was manhandled by a woman because he'd shown up _under-equipped._

He gulped with quite some effort. "So she's the one who gave me these clothes then?" Think of the clothes. Think of the clothes. Not showing up indisposed and unconscious. The clothes. "Where is she now? I feel quite guilty that I can't provide her my gratitude." Though it was only right and seemed appropriate, there wasn't another person in the world Astaire would rather not have met eyes with.

"She is absent at the moment, having left to perform other duties before you awoke. I shall pass on your regards when she returns."

Phew. That was a relief. All the same, Astaire felt he had to ask. "So, this Margaret... what does she look like?" Or rather, was Astaire undressed by someone who didn't look like Maneater Mildred without the sack?

Igor merely chuckled to himself, his smile seeming to grow wider at the question. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I don't think it's my place to say." Sly devil. Astaire chuckled alongside him, before taking a deep breath and touching the television screen. A strange sensation overcame him and before he knew it, Astaire had been pulled into the device entirely, some invisible force having grabbed him and taken him by surprise. He fell through the gateway between the worlds, seeing no end in sight while his original entrance fell away from above him.

The TV disappeared as Igor tapped the top of the device. His hand resumed its original position under his nose, followed shortly by his eyes closing as they resumed their default position.

"Interesting indeed. It is not often one's first visit to the Velvet Room is also their last." He thought.


	3. The Land of the Living

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unfamiliar face, a hearty meal, and a change of occupation.

Travelling through the TV felt very unusual to Astaire. Not because he hadn't made use of teleportation (assuming this could be classed as such,) before, but because it didn't involve the feeling of being burned alive and reconstructed elsewhere as per usual. As convenient an asset as the Lordvessel was, it'd be a lie to say that simply walking didn't seem like a tempting alternative. Thinking on it, methods of transport to Anor Londo, Ariamis and Oolacile hadn't been very enjoyable either.

Thoughts of the Sanctuary Guardian's potent poison sent a shiver down Astaire's back. That hadn't been pleasant.

"Oh, rats. I was going to investigate that place further when I got back from the caverns." He remembered. "So much for that, then." Wherever he was going, he got a feeling bonfires wouldn't be as much of a staple as they had once been. Oolacile would just have to wait.

Actually, now that Astaire thought on it, where _was_ he going? While Igor had mentioned briefly that the TV would send him to the world of humans, he didn't actually mention whereabouts. If he hadn't also been dragged into a painting, lifted off by gargoyles and held in the mouth of a giant serpent, chances are it'd have unnerved him more than it did. He was no stranger to strange places.

The knight crossed his legs as he fell, rubbing his chin in thought as the rounded rectangles he fell past stretched on endlessly. Clearly he wasn't going anywhere for awhile yet, he could mull over his thoughts for the time being. "Hmm… if I'm not mistaken, It's said that the Furtive Pygmy found the Dark Soul and spread undeath to Lordran through the division of it." Wait, was that how it went? Was it the Pygmy who did it? As hard as he thought, it was the only answer he'd any clarity of. He took that as a sign that he was probably right. Like, 80% right.

"Judging from the lack of knowledge on everyone's part regarding hollows, it seems a fair bet to assume that's not the case in this "human world."" He told himself, crossing his arms. As he mulled over the situation ever longer, he found a sobering conclusion bubble up from within. "Wait, without the curse of Undeath or the bonfires to support it, can I really exist at all? Will I die as soon as I touch the ground?" Oh dear.

From the looks of things, it seemed Astaire was about to get his answer. A fierce light appeared below him, likely signalling that his journey was about at an end. Taking a deep breath and bracing for the possibility of an instantaneous death, the knight raised his arms and shielded his eyes from the light.

 

* * *

 

 

With majesty and grace befitting that of a brick through a window, Astaire made his landing head-first into the human world with a cacophonous crash. He felt his neck jolt as his head made contact with something hard and uncomfortable, apparently having landed with his back to the floor. The immediate impact was accompanied by the sound of several smaller objects toppling to the floor as well. The large object which Astaire had slammed into, a bed, served as his support as he hauled himself to his feet, revelling in the fact that he was still alive, or at least as alive as an undead could be. Rubbing the back of his head, the young knight gazed around the room he had ended up in, wherever it was. Excluding Anor Londo, it seemed far more luxurious than a good majority of Lordran.

Then again, given the state of most places outside Anor Londo, that wasn't saying much.

There was the soft, fluffy looking bed in the centre of the room, coated in a thick cream-coloured duvet which matched the walls. As luck would have it, Astaire had made contact with pretty much the only solid part of it, the footboard. The walls were decorated simply, with a few simple pictures here and there. The most eye-catching adornment being-

"AAAGH!" A mirror. Astaire gawked at himself with wide eyes, not recognising the face that stared back. How could he? He hadn't seen his face for an immeasurable amount of time, never mind his human face. The gloves he'd been given in the Velvet Room were thrown off with haste, revealing calloused yet very much fleshy and human hands. Hands which found their way to Astaire's face, pinching his cheeks in amazement. How long had it been since they'd been so fleshed-out and peach coloured? His blazing orange eyes scanned every minute detail, no longer sunken and dark. He ran his fingers through his mess of charred black hair, which looked flawless despite everything Astaire'd been through. While he could have stopped to puzzle out why a constant cycle of death had either never jostled his hair about, or had seemingly fixed it in place, something else caught his eye. Something which only became evident upon very, _very_ close inspection.

"...It's gone. The Darksign is gone." He muttered to himself. Indeed, the fiery ring with an inky centre, once branded firmly in the centre of his left eye, had seemingly disappeared. Though he wasn't sure, there was only one reasonable conclusion to make at first glance. The curse of Undeath had been lifted. He had fully regained his humanity.

Astaire staggered back, tumbling onto the bed as he ran over the situation in his head. This was impossible. Unheard of. Humans became Undead, Undead became Hollows. That was it. "This doesn't make sense. Not much sense at all." As much reason as he had to be pleased at the outcome, Astaire's concerns remained unquelled. He might not have been Undead, but _why?_ How? Nothing he'd seen nor heard from anyone up until now could even let him speculate as to what was going on. He could do little but rest his head on his hands, contemplating the situation.

"Ah…!" A voice from behind wrenched Astaire around. As he turned, he found himself face to face with the one person he couldn't be happier to see.

Rise.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Unfortunately, she didn't seem to reciprocate. "JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING IN HERE?!" Before he could even begin an explanation, Astaire found himself on the receiving end of whatever Rise could get her hands on. Cutlery, silverware, even a clock wasn't spared from her wrath. "STALKER! PERVERT!" She screamed loudly, no doubt rattling every window in a five mile radius.

Instinctively, Astaire reached into his coat to pull out his shield, only to remember that his new attire wasn't laid out like his armour had been, so he couldn't-

Wait a minute, he could?

Astaire hastily retrieved the Grass Crest shield he'd used earlier and put it between himself and seemingly neverending barrage of miscellania. "For Gwyn's sake, Ms. Kujikawa! What on earth has gotten into you?!" He yelled desperately. The thumps from the other side of the shield slowly became less frequent, finally stopping altogether. Its wielder dared to peek around the side at Rise, thankful not to be on the receiving end of any further punishment.

Though she stopped, her eyes were filled with unfamiliarity. The sort of eyes cast at a stranger. All the same something was stirring, causing the girl to waver.

The name "Gwyn."

The shield.

The fact that he'd materialised said shield seemingly out of nowhere.

Even without the first two, Rise had to admit that the third one was pretty convincing.

The bottle of water she'd been ready to throw fell to the floor, the stirring in her eyes finally settling as there appeared to be but one conclusion to come to. "...Astaire-kun?"

Realising the risk of blunt force trauma had been lowered significantly, Astaire lowered his shield, lightly waving a hand to his prior aggressor. "In the flesh, it seems."

Rise approached the young man slowly. He certainly looked, acted and had the same spatially improbable powers as the knight she'd fought alongside nary twenty four hours ago, but he looked nothing like him. "How…? When did you…?" Confusion set upon her like a pack of rabid dogs. There was far too much to ask. She took in his fiery eyes, examining his hair's newfound sheen and his skin's newfound peachy smoothness. The sight of them finally resulted in one solid query, "Are you still one of those… Undead things?" She asked cautiously.

If he was, Astaire was having a hard time telling. "As far as I can tell, I don't think so. If only I could explain why…" He fell to a murmur as he made a troubled expression. As good as it sounded, not knowing the method behind he newfound humanity perplexed him beyond any notion of comfort.

"Either way, does that mean you're not gonna, y'know, go crazy and become a killing machine?" Astaire shook his head. "Thank goodness… You might wanna tell your face that, though." She added with a tap on the knight's chin. Faced with that, he couldn't resist letting slip a smile. The two chuckled lightly at each other as the weight of the atmosphere lifted. Still taken with how different he looked, Rise couldn't help orbiting his head, looking him up and down. "So _this_ is what you look like when you're not all dried up looking…"

Astaire's eyes bounced from side to side as they followed her around. Never mind the once-over, she was giving him the twice and thrice-overs on the side. To be fair, for most of the time he'd known her he'd had his face covered, maybe it wasn't that odd.

...All the same, if it went on for much longer he was going to start feeling self-conscious. He cleared his throat, seeming to knock Rise out of whatever busy trance she'd found herself in. She shook herself, twintails swinging from side to side. "Wait! Never mind how you look, how did you even get here in the first place?!" For being the elephant in the room, she'd done one hell of a job of missing it up until now.

Astaire turned his attention to the flatscreen TV situated in front of the bed. It was wider, yet thinner than the one Igor had produced. How he managed to fall through it in the first place was beyond him. "I fell out of this thing, apparently. I woke up in a strange blue room, talked to a fellow with an oddly-shaped nose and then hopped into a device much like this one." He examined the back of the screen, making absolutely sure there was no trickery about. "He told me it'd take me to the human world. Lords only know how, though."

"An old man in a blue room?" Rise echoed, racking her brain. Surely something that odd had to have been brought up at _some_ point in the past.

"Indeed. From what I'm told there was supposed to be a woman present as well. I believe he called her Margaret."

Now they were getting somewhere. Though the team had only met her twice, Margaret was hard to forget.

That being said, there _was_ one member of the team who'd seen her more than twice. Rise swiped up her cell phone and quickly navigated to Yu's number. "I don't know what's going on here, but Senpai might." She said over the dial tone. As the telltale sound of ringing took over, she quickly held out the device to Astaire. He gave it a blank stare before taking it off her.

He raised an eyebrow at the mysterious artifact buzzing in his hand. All metal and plastic, it looked completely foreign from anything Lordran could have made. He looked perplexedly at Rise as she held her hand up against her ear, thumb and pinkie outstretched. "Oh! Right, right right." _Now_ he got it. He held the odd amalgamation of metal and plastic to his ear, just as something spoke from within it.

"...Hello?" Came a voice from the other end. It sounded familiar.

"Oh, it's you! You were the fellow with the grey hair I met earlier, right?" Astaire asked, contemplating how exactly the device in his hand actually worked.

"What the-? Astaire-san? Why are you calling from Rise's phone? _How_ are you calling from Rise's phone?" On the other end of the line, it was a wonder Yu hadn't fallen out of his chair in surprise.

Astaire set his shield down on the bed, pulling up a chair and resting an elbow on the table in front of it. "I was rather hoping you could tell me. Ms. Kujikawa is under the impression you can tell me something about a Ms. Margaret."

Again, it was a wonder Yu hadn't broken something at Astaire's words. A person from another world calling him from Rise's phone after disappearing a day earlier was bad enough, but now he knew about Margaret, too? Not even his friends, all of whom had Personas of their own, knew about Margaret for quite a while. The whole situation was baffling. "Margaret? Really? I mean I _do_ know hew, but how do you?"

"Well, you see..."

Astaire recounted his meeting with Igor as best he could, trying not to leave anything out lest it end up being a vital clue later. Both Yu and Rise were hung on every word, seeing as one didn't know about what went on in the Velvet Room and the other _did_ all too well.

"...And that's all. I somehow stepped from my world into yours, if Igor is to be believed." He finished at last.

"I think he is, but frankly I'm surprised he was as straightforward with you as he was. He likes to switch between helpful and cryptic at the flick of a switch, at least with me. "

Now that he'd recounted the event again, something stuck out to Astaire. "Incidentally… Senpai, was it?" The sound of Yu choking on the other end of the reciever passed the knight by entirely. He also failed to notice Rise giggling to herself beside him. "May I ask what happened to you and everyone else? I should think if you'd wound up sat next to me in that room, this wouldn't need explaining."

Yu paused, letting out an exasperated noise before replying. "By the sounds of it, the same thing that happened to you without the middle part. I woke up back in my room, since that's where I entered the other world from. Sounds like the same happened to everyone else." He recalled the text he'd gotten from Yosuke after, complaining about the headache he'd gotten when everyone bar Yu and Rise were shot out of the TV all at once, kicking them onto the floor like a sack of potatoes. "It makes some sense, I guess. Doesn't explain why you ended up at Rise's place, though."

"I'd wager Igor played a hand in that. He did seem awfully well informed about the happenings leading up to… whatever happened. Ms. Kujikawa and I _were_ together for some time before meeting you and everyone else, perhaps that had something to do with it." He suggested. It was a good a guess as any.

"Maybe so. In any case, this is a little much to take in all at once. I'll call everyone up and let them know what's happening, it'd be for the best if we all discussed this later."

"Later it is, then. I look forward to meeting you under better circumstances, Senpai."

"Yu!" Astaire jumped slightly at the sudden outburst, again completely missing Rise clutching her sides as she tried not to burst out laughing. "My name is Yu. Yu Narukami. Sorry I didn't make that clear earlier." There was something about Astaire of all people calling him "Senpai" that really didn't sound right.

Well now Astaire was even more confused. As he prepared to launch another line of inquiry as to why Rise insisted on calling him "Senpai" in the first place, he caught himself on. If that was his name, that was his name. "Very well, Mr. Narukami it is. I shall await our rendezvous with bated breath. Farewell for now."

Carefully handing the phone back to its owner, the young man exhaled deeply as he slumped down in the chair. It hadn't felt like he'd done much, but the fatigue hit him hard. All that Shadow malarky was a right wear down, it seemed. As he relaxed, his twin-tailed associate pulled up a chair of her own and sat next to him. "So you're from another world entirely, huh?" She asked. A nod from her companion confirmed as much. "I guess that makes sense. It'd explain how you're able to do so much kooky stuff." She added, reaching over and examining the Grass Crest shield Astaire'd produced earlier. "Where do you keep this thing, anyway?"

"The same place I keep this." Astaire replied, reaching into the inside of his coat. Rise's jaw dropped as he gradually produced the hilt, handguard, ricasso and finally the lengthy blade of his Zweihander. "And this." Out came the hood. "And this." And the armour. "Oh, and these too." Plus the leggings and gauntlets.

She shook her head, rubbing her eyes when that didn't work. This was some Doraemon-tier nonsense. "I never would've guessed you were a magician as well as a knight, Astaire-kun." There could be no other explanation. It was like something straight out of a magic act.

In spite of this, Astaire shook both his head and a hand. "You'd be guessing wrong if you had. I'm afraid sorcery's a bit outside my field, to say it nicely." To say it somewhat less nicely, sorcery was for whelps. Miracles and pyromancies, on the other hand… "In any case, it's a fairly simple solution." With that, he fiddled about inside his coat a bit further before producing something which _didn't_ defy the laws of space for once. Specifically, a thin wooden box, small enough to carry around but big enough to store… _something_ in.

Before she could rightly point out that a box that small couldn't carry the contents of her handbag, let alone a sword, armour and shield, Rise's mouth went agape again as Astaire flipped open the lid and plunged his entire arm's length inside.

"Hey, hey, wait a minute!" She leapt out of her seat as the entire top half of Astaire disappeared inside the box, running around to his back in case he lost his footing and fell inside entirely. Lord only knew if he fell in what manner of task would be needed t bring him back out. "Okay, I get it already, just cut it out already!" Rise insisted. This was way too precarious for her liking.

Nonetheless, the knight persisted. "Hang about, I think I found it!" His voice sounded distant from inside, but it was all too easy to make out his strained grunts and heaves as he struggled to lift something out. Given the Zweihander looked heavy enough to fall through the floor and he handled it singlehandedly, what could possibly have been worse than that? "Ah, here we go!" Astaire announced, slowly straightening himself as he pulled out the item he'd been after.

What could possibly have been worse than a Zweihander?

A Dragon Tooth. That's what. A massive, hulking black mass of devastating proportions, so heavy that the floorboards noticeably creaked once Astaire revealed it in its entirety.

If Rise's jaw could have extended any further, it'd have been rolling out the door and into the street.

As soon as he'd produced them, all Astaire's belongings were quickly herded back into the box, sealed away with a satisfying little "click." The knight smiled broadly at Rise's slack-jawed look of amazement. "And that, Ms. Kujikawa," he patted the top of the box almost lovingly, "is the function of a Bottomless Box."

It took a second or two for Rise to reboot and formulate a response. "That's… that sure is something, alright." She noted, still wide eyed.

"Oh, don't be so surprised. You and your ilk all have powers beyond human-" or Undead, "-comprehension as well! It's only fair that I have my own share too!" He patted his coat down as he affixed the box back into whatever was keeping it in place. Even an idiot could see he was fond of it. One thing was for sure, his little demonstration had certainly lightened the mood a fair bit.

The only question remaining was what to do until the meeting with Yu and the others. A wayward glance out the window was quick to bestow an idea upon Rise as she turned enthusiastically to her new companion. "Hey, if you're from another world, that means you don't know what all that out there is, right?" She asked, more rhetorically than anything, given she already knew the answer. "Well, what are you waiting for?! We've got a city to explore!" She enthused, pumping her fists energetically.

Immediately, Astaire was on his feet. "Right you are! At your leisure, Ms. Kujikawa, show me what wonders await in this world of yours!" He said, mirroring her energy. The hype flowing through them like an electric current, the two bounded out the door of Rise's room and ran for the streets.

 

* * *

 

 

Good gods and heavens above was this a bad idea.

Where once Astaire had been filled to the brim with excitement, the prospect at having an entirely new world to explore thrilling him beyond worlds, the full implication of such a matter hit him like a wrecking ball as he and Rise set foot outside.

Groups. Swathes. Masses. More people than Astaire could have ever fathomed possible. It froze him on the spot as he took in the sight of the busy Iwatodai rush hour. So dense were the crowds that he couldn't even see the ground they walked on. A tightness gripped his throat, his pupils turning to pinpricks as beads of sweat began forming around his head.

"Alright, let's- WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Rise cut herself off as she hastily began forcing the hilt of Astaire's Zweihander back inside his coat, eventually relinquishing his clammy-handed grip on it. "What's gotten into you?! Don't you know that bringing something like that out in a crowd is a really, _REALLY_ BAD IDEA?!" She squeaked, pitching her lowered voice so highly it was a shock anyone beyond dogs could hear her.

Even in the wake of her rightly-held mania, Astaire kept rightful hold of his own. "There's so many of them. So many. _Too_ many." He cautiously scanned the area around him, making sure nobody was sneaking up to shank him in the back. "How do you know none of these people are out for our blood? There could be assassins hidden amongst them and we'd only know once it was too late!" He spouted quickly, his eyes darting from left to right.

Hands on her hips, Rise sighed. "I think you've been playing knight for a little too long. Not everyone in this world wants to kill you, got that?" Underneath his coat, Astaire seemed to loosen up a bit, but he clearly didn't look much more comfortable overall. Before he was tempted to reach back into the little box of horrors, Rise quickly gripped his wrist and dragged him along behind her. She could hear the lack of rhythm in his heavy footsteps as he walked. Though she looked straight ahead, it didn't take visual contact to tell his mind was elsewhere. Not stopping to interrupt the tide of people around them, she tugged him a bit closer to her, turning her head more towards him. "C'mon, Astaire-kun, if you keep this up you might get us both in trouble!"

The knight relieved his wrist from Rise's grip. It was about time he caught himself on. Rise smiled to herself, now freshly assured they could retain a low profile. It was only when she watched her shadow on the person in front of her suddenly become a few inches taller that said assurances quickly died out. No longer arching his back out of concern, Astaire now stood a fair inch or two above everyone around him. The only way he could have stood out more was if his already light-shaded skin had been topped with a lighter shade of hair. Rise groaned as she hurried the both of them down the street.

A sudden sound managed to break out from amongst the din of the crowd, jumping out from behind Rise and crying out like a rapturous lion. As the idol turned to see whatever hellish abomination had just let out a roar, she was met only with the blue-coated knight she'd brought along with her.

Specifically, his stomach.

Astaire clutched at his torso as the noise died down, looking quite bewildered at the phenomenon. "Wait a minute… when was the last time you ate, again?" Given that his stomach had let out what sounded more like death throes than a growl, she was almost afraid to ask. Her concerns weren't given much leeway as Astaire pondered her question for far, _far_ too long. "...There _was_ a last time, wasn't there?" Astaire shrugged. "Okay, that settles it."

Before she could expand on what exactly had been settled, Astaire found himself clutched at the wrist once more, pulled into a building with a sign written in some indecipherable language out front. No sooner had they passed the frame of the door, a concatenation of unfamiliar delicious smells assaulted his senses, only serving to deepen the well-dug pit that he held in his stomach. He closely followed after Rise, who took a seat more towards the back of the establishment, closed off and hard to see from outside.

"Miso Ramen and one Hagakure bowl, please." The chef behind the counter gave a nod as he went about preparing the dishes while Rise sat back down with Astaire, who sat with a food-induced distant look on him. She clicked her fingers to get his attention, making him jump rather abruptly back into reality, a rather loud "thump" coming off the table. "So, Astaire-kun…" Rise began, interlocking her fingers on the table. "Why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself?"

"About myself? Whatever for?" Nobody had ever taken much of an interest in Astaire's past before, nor could he see why they would. Given all the legendary beings that graced Lordran with their presence, he was far from being anywhere near noteworthy in any sense.

"Well, I don't really know that much about you, other than what your shadow said, and even then he didn't exactly offer a lot of context for what he said."

Oh, Gods above. The sooner Astaire could forget about that yellow-eyed freak, the better. "Very well, then." He cleared his throat before continuing. "Let's see… I suppose the Undead Asylum is as good a place to start as any. Undead such as I were locked away there for our lack of humanity, basically just left to rot and wither. I couldn't tell you how long I was sat in there myself, but I can't imagine it was anywhere near brief." There had certainly been happier ways to start a story, Rise thought. Even in the wake of such madness-inducing cruelty, Astaire hardly batted an eyelid. Maybe it was because his undead, withered body hadn't had any, who knew? "But one day, someone came to my rescue. A bold knight from Astora named Oscar. He dropped me the key to my cell, and I was let loose. From there…"

It was difficult to resist being impressed by Astaire's feats as he described them from there on out. From the sounds of it, Lordran and the Shadow World as Rise knew it were insurmountably different. Yu had once recounted to her the first time he'd fended off shadows, large disembodied mouths that he had easily taken out with Izanagi's help.

To contrast, Astaire's first encounter had been to fend off a demon whose weapon alone dwarfed him in size by several times. What followed were tales of doing battle with a hulking bull demon, a fearsome, fire-spitting drake on a bridge, a heavily armoured boar, several armies' worth of undead soldiers that refused to stay dead, and finally two animated, fire breathing gargoyles which he'd fought off simultaneously on the roof of a parish.

And that was only his first objective.

Damn.

"...and it was only after all that trouble that I got to the first Bell of Awakening. After that I set about going after the second one."

Though she wasn't entirely sure she wanted an answer, Rise felt her invested curiosity overpower her concerns. "A second one? Was it much worse than the first?"

"It made the parish look like a trifle. A dragon with one massive mouth in place of a torso, a sewer filled with the petrified, unmoving remains of wanders to come before me, giant rats…"

"NOPE! Stop right there! That's far enough for now, thanks!" Rise said as she waved her arms and shook her head. If there was one thing she didn't need a mental image of right now, it was giant sewer-dwelling rats.

Her eyes met those of the warrior along the table from her. As crazy as it sounded, Rise had to remind herself periodically throughout the story that the young man telling her of all these unspeakable, insurmountable horrors was the same one sitting in front of her right now. The one who'd conquered everything up until the parish and who had gone on to conquer even more hardships afterwards. It almost sounded too good to be true. Her mind wandered ever further as she pictured the events in her head. Would her friends have been able to do the same with their Personas? Even if they could, would they have been able to do it alone as Astaire had?

Thoughts of Astaire's tales of adventure and danger only came to an end when two bowls were sat upon the table by the owner of Hagakure. "Oh, thank you!" Rise chirped. The owner seemed to shoot Astaire a wary look as he left, slightly putting the warrior on edge. If he hadn't had such delicious looking food in front of him, he might've been more worried. "Oh wait, do you know how to use chopsticks? You have to-"

Before she could even attempt to fashion an explanation, Astaire's hand flew from his bowl to his mouth with lightning speed, the chopsticks held deftly between his fingers. As soon as the first bit of meat hit his tongue, Astaire seemed to fly into an insatiable frenzy. It was often noted that Chie was by far the biggest meat lover in the investigation team, and that to challenge her to a meat-eating contest was practically suicide. For a fleeting moment, Rise considered that Astaire might have a chance at beating her. That intimidating roar his stomach had made had been no joke. The meat was gone as quickly as it had arrived, with a dazed Astaire finally stopping to take a breath after devouring the entire meal. Rise had barely snapped her chopsticks in half, never mind started her ramen, and it took both parties a good few seconds to realise what they had just witnessed.

There wasn't even a single speck of food left on the bowl. He'd practically inhaled everything on the inside, to the point where washing it mightn't have made any difference. The ravenous knight was the first to make a move, hastily grabbing a napkin and cleaning his mouth, his face as red as a beetroot. "P-Pardon me." He mumbled, "I just haven't eaten real food since..."

Since… when, again? He'd tried remembering outside, but then he'd been interrupted by Rise's insistent efforts to land him in Hagakure proper. Given the supreme quality of the meal he'd just had, he doubted moss and estus could have constituted anything close to what could be called "real food." But it was all he'd had.

Something was wrong. He had to have eaten something else at some point, he had to. He couldn't have made it this far in life without any sustenance. Yet no memory of food of any kind existed. Not even the faintest scrap of a memory could he recall. He almost appeared to be in physical pain as he strained himself to remember, the creases on his forehead multiplying more and more as time went on, the growing headache accompanying it feeling like an iron spike being hammered into his skull. His eyes threatened to bulge out of his head entirely as he tried to form a coherent sentence and failed.

This was too much to watch. Rise outstretched a hand to pull him out of whatever maddening trance he'd entered, but she hesitated as she noticed a shimmer of light form under one of Astaire's palms. By now, his face was a pained red, bullets of sweat streamed down his face as his bulbous eyes darted around independent of one another, manic and unfocused. A thin layer of what looked like steam began rising from his palms as the pressure seemed to scorch either side of his head. "Astaire-kun, stop it!" Rise finally cried, unable to watch any longer.

It was too much. Having hit his breaking point, Astaire slammed his fists into the table. "I can't remember. The memories simply aren't there." His face bore a thousand-yard stare, unfocused and bleary. "They have to be. I couldn't have always been Undead, I can't have been. I have to have been from somewhere. Somewhere with food. Somewhere not Lordran." He murmured grimly. The smell of burning wood wafted into a very timid Rise's nose as she finally took her attention away from the knight, who didn't seem all there himself. His hands spread charred, black marks across the table, almost as though possessed by fire itself. "But only Lordran remains. I can think only of Lordran. Impossible. It's impossible. It has to be impossible." He continued to chant.

"Um… Astaire-kun?"

The harrowed young man seemed to bolt back to life at her word, his eyes filled anew with lucidity. He cleared his throat again. "Apologies, Ms. Kujikawa. I'm afrai-" He cut off suddenly as he spied the increasingly large amounts of smoke rising from under his palms. "Oh, that's troubling." He quickly retracted both hands and patted them down on his coat in order to dissipate the heat. Unfortunately, the heat was easier dissipated than the undue attention his antics had served to attract. Several pairs of eyes were becoming increasingly interested in what was going on between idol superstar Rise Kujikawa and the stranger sitting opposite her. Murmurs began flying between people as the situation came into perspective. A famous idol, out with a mysterious boy at a restaurant and trying to keep a low profile? This could have been news in the making.

In hindsight, Rise knew she should have seen this coming. Constant privacy wasn't a luxury oft afforded to idols in her position, save for when they took a year off in Inaba. Publicity in light of a suspected relationship was the last thing she needed. "C'mon Astaire-kun, we're leaving." She said, her voice low.

"If you insist, Ms. Kujikawa." The knight replied, having finally calmed himself proper. The two slid out from the table and bore a hasty retreat to the door of Hagakure, with Rise keeping her head low and Astaire trying not to look as confused as he felt. He didn't quite understand why they were leaving in such a hurry, but the growing cloud of whispers and murmurs which followed behind them might've had something to do with it. Unable to glean anything specific from the myriad voices, he resigned himself to sticking close to Rise as they bore the brunt of the endless tide of people in the streets once more.

 

* * *

 

 

Outside, Astaire had begun to notice that it was not just the restaurant patrons who seemed to be interested in him and Rise, but quite a few people on the street as well. The sudden shift in attention was enough to set him firmly back on edge, heavily resisting the urge to whip out a weapon of some sort. As more and more people began to take notice of the duo, Rise found her pace quickening instinctively. However, her quickened pace only served to attract more attention on its own. Matters weren't helped by the black-haired beacon who followed behind her, as surreptitious and subtle as an earthquake knocking half the city down.

Rise sighed to herself. Even a modicum of subterfuge would've been appreciated. It was becoming ever clearer that she wasn't going to be able to explain this without great difficulty.

The front door of the hotel flew by as quickly as it had come into view, both Rise and Astaire sprinting as soon as they thought they were out of sight of the public, even if only one of them knew why they were doing so. It was only upon reaching the nearest elevator that they could afford to catch their respective breaths. The taller of the two offered the shorter a confused look between pants. "Hah… Would you care to explain… hah… why we were running?" He just about managed to ask.

Rise quickly tapped the elevator's call button before resting her head on the wall, her breaths just as ragged as Astaire's. "It's complicated… it's sort of a… *gasp*... human world thing…" She just about managed to reply. The polished doors in front of them slid open and invited them inside, an invitation both parties accepted. Astaire took particular notice of the lack of a pressure plate on the base of the little steel box, and for a moment was a little befuddled about how the blasted contraption worked. That was until he spied the series of smaller pressure plates on the wall, all neighboured by numbers. Seeing as she was still catching her breath, he took it upon himself to tap the "4" button, shutting the doors after.

But something about his behaviour struck Rise as odd. "How'd you know to do that?" She asked.

"Do what?"

"The buttons. How'd you know to do that?" She rightly asked. They'd taken the stairs the first time round. That'd explain how he'd remembered the floor number, printed in big, unmissable letters on the walls as they were, but it didn't have a manual for elevator operation printed alongside them.

"Buttons? You mean these miniscule pressure plates? I supposed they'd work like the singular big ones Lordran's elevators have." He explained, tapping the floor with his foot at mention of the bigger plates.

Well, there was a line of logic somewhere in there. All the same, it didn't explain some of the other oddities surrounding him. It didn't take a genius to notice that Astaire hadn't exactly been raised in modern society, given his usual choice of armour and armaments, as well as the fact that someone who'd fought off monsters aplenty was afraid of a large crowd. This went beyond being sheltered, he didn't even have a clue. In spite of this, he'd known how to use chopsticks right off the bat, had sussed out how modern elevators work and had displayed some especially… _modern_ language upon killing his shadow. Whatever his story was, there was clearly something off about it.

If there was an answer to all of this, Rise wasn't getting it any time soon. The elevator came to a halt on the fourth floor, allowing both idol and knight into the corridor beyond. The want for a reprieve in her room had never felt greater.

As her gaze went down the corridor, Rise's face went pale. "Oh no."

However fast word had spread of their exploits, there was now a throng of reporters, tabloid journalists, interviewers and paparazzi seated firmly outside her room. Though she'd always been up for an interview when the need arose, Rise gulped at the prospect of having to make up an explanation on the spot. Taking heed of her reaction, Astaire unbuttoned his way to the Bottomless Box. "This is bad news, I take it?" He whispered. Rise shook her head. She gulped again and began walking towards her room. She had to get back there at some point, after all.

It didn't take long for the reporters to pay her mind, approaching with her mysterious new companion in tow.

"Risette, over here!"

"Kujikawa-san, can we ask you a few questions?!"

"Rise-chan, Rise-chan! Who is your new friend there?!" They bellowed their questions all at once, cameras and notepads held high. What started as a slow walk in their general direction turned into a synchronised run, people shoulder to shoulder over the entire width of the corridor. There was no escaping it, the thunderous phalanx carrying intrusive, burning questions the tabloids needed answers to, the building itself shaking under the might of the stampede.

Before they could get within hearing distance, Rise leaned in to Astaire's ear. "Whatever you do, don't let them think you're my boyfriend."

"B-Boy-?!" Astaire repeated, stammering as his face went red. The implications of such accusations made his newly-beating heart thump in his chest. Either that or he was still recovering from the sprint, either or. "Of course I'm not…! I could never-!" He was cut short as the reporters closed in, showing no signs of stopping.

All at once, Astaire got an idea. He broke off from Rise, striding forward aggressively towards the unstoppable force that approached them both. He screwed his face into a look of stern determination as he solidified his grip inside his coat and, with one practiced motion, swung out the massive length of metal that was his Zweihander. The light glanced off the blade as its wielder let it fall to the ground, the piercing sound of metal on marble ringing in everyone's ears.

Time seemed to stop as everyone in the corridor processed what had just happened. All the reporters who had been so eager to bombard Rise with questions stopped in their tracks as they came face to face with a set of fiercely sharp orange eyes. Cameras began flashing, catching Rise's shocked expression behind the boy in the blue coat. The sound filled the air, but that was all. Nobody spoke, nobody moved. Until finally, someone broke the silence.

"State your business here!" Astaire demanded, bringing his Zweihander up and setting it on his shoulder. It took everyone a couple of seconds to come up with a response.

Finally, one reported managed to speak up. "W-we had some questions for Rise-chan!"

"Were you expecting this at all?" Turning around, Astaire faced Rise with a serious expression, which finally gave way to a devious wink. Whatever was he thinking? Given the only way to found out seemed to be to play along, Rise shook her head wordlessly. Her response shifted the serious expression back into place as Astaire turned to face the crowd. "If this engagement wasn't arranged prior, then you're naught but a bother. Begone, the lot of you!" He said with a swipe of his hand. All but one of the reporters stepped back cautiously. The sole reporter, a middle-aged fellow, stepped forward to challenge Astaire's order.

He squared up to Astaire as best he could, given the height difference. "And who the hell are you to say whether we can speak to Risette or not?!"

He got his answer in the form of a kick to the stomach, knocking the man flat on the floor. Suddenly bereft of his courage, the man stared up at the imposing figure of the fellow with the massive sword. His face seemed to darken, while his eyes seemed to blaze as bright as a bonfire. "I am Knight Astaire, Ms. Kujikawa's personal bodyguard. As her appointed guardian, I advise you to adhere to my previous demand." He emphasised his point by bringing his sword off his shoulder and letting the end of the blade slam into the ground once again, several inches off the reporter's arm. "If you don't part and let us pass, I shall part you myself."

Like hell did anyone need to be told twice after that. The man scrambled to his feet and joined his fellow reporters in pressing against the wall, gazes locked on the blue-coated stoic who stared the lot of them down. Everyone seemed to hold their respective breaths as he walked by them, eventually turning to signal Rise to do the same. Given she'd anticipated his reaction about as much as they had, she could do little but give a nervous smile as she cautiously passed the paparazzi by. Where fearful and confused looks were shot Astaire's way, Rise received leers and scared, fleeting flances. . She could do little more than try not to dwell on it for now, walking past Astaire and letting him take up his spot behind her, slinging his sword over his shoulder once again.

She fumbled with her room key slightly, sensing the intensity of the glare Astaire was holding on everyone else. They may have already passed them by, but some powerful inward force kept them frozen to the wall. The moment the door opened, both knight and idol ducked inside without another word, shutting the door firmly behind themselves. Rise sat on her bed, looking up at Astaire with an expression he couldn't quite place. Something told him, however, that an explanation was in order. "...Well." He started, chuckling. "They certainly won't think I'm your boyfriend now, will they?" He couldn't help it, he burst out laughing as he stuffed his sword back into his coat.

He heard a chuckle creep up Rise's throat, and eventually she too raised a hand to her mouth as she began lightly laughing too. Outside the room, she'd felt on the verge of screaming in shock at Astaire's actions. Lord only know what they'd hear about it later on. But now? She had to admit, telling them he was a bodyguard was actually a fairly sound explanation. He certainly fit the image well enough. Tall, imposing and slinging around a sword so tall it was a wonder it'd fit in the corridor at all.

Well, maybe not that last part, but the sentiment remained.

As the two calmed down, it soon came to Rise's mind that those reporters they'd shooed off probably weren't the only ones, just those who got there quickest. With any luck, hotel security would prevent any more large swathes of people crowding up her door, but there was no clear guarantee. For all she knew, peeking out the door would reveal even more people than last time! "I guess if anyone else shows up, there might be someone around to warn them off trying anything like that again, huh Astaire-kun?" She asked casually.

His lack of a response coaxed Rise up from her bed. From the looks of it, he seemed to have placed the bottomless box back on the table and was staring at it intently. Not _in_ it, _at_ it. Puzzled and hoping he wasn't going to have another fit like in Hagakure, Rise brought herself up and joined him at the table. Her sudden presence seemed to spook him out of whatever thoughts he was having as he met her gaze. "Oh, pardon me, I was a bit caught up in myself there." He finally spoke.

"Whatcha up to, huh? Something wrong with the box?" Besides holding untold horrors from another world inside it, that was.

Astaire ran a thumb over the two latches keeping the box sealed shut. "Not with the box, no. It's more myself I'm worried about. Back there, in that place with all the food, I realised I couldn't remember the last proper meal I'd had." That was putting it lightly. He was freaking out so badly that Rise was amazed he hadn't given himself a nosebleed on top of everything else. "This box," Astaire tapped a finger off the top of it, "contains something from every place I've ever travelled to. If something's awry with my memories, there must be some trace of what's missing in here."

Something from _everywhere_? Places beyond the ones he'd told Rise about in Hagakure? "Well, what're we waiting for? C'mon, I wanna see what's inside too!" Rise egged him on. It'd have been a white lie to say she wasn't monstrously curious at what all might be lingering under those latches.

Her enthusiasm was enough to bring a smile to Astaire's once-sullen face. "How could I say no to a reaction like that? Let's make a start, shall we?" He grinned, flicking the latches open and delving his hand inside the inky black depths of the box. "Righto, I guess we'd best get the basics out of the way first." He said as he retrieved several bolts of cloth and laid them out on the table.

While he continued to dig through his belongings, Rise examined the bits of cloth. They all had a similar shape, tied off at the top and some looking frayed at the bottom. "What are these things? Are they charms or something?"

"Those are talismans. They're pretty important for we Warriors of Sunlight, given they let us harness the power of Miracles." Before she could inevitably ask what a miracle was, Astaire parted from the box and grabbed a talisman. "Most people would sort of crouch down and hold them to their chest, like this." He explained, assuming the position himself. "That's really more for clerics, though. Folk such as myself use them a little differently."

"So it's magic?" Rise looked at the one she had a hand on, white and red tied off with a yellow band. It didn't look like much. Could something as simple as this _really_ cast magic?

"A certain branch of magic, anyway. A branch most oft suited to healing and other passive things like that. With a few exceptions." Astaire rose to his feet, gripping the talisman tightly. "For we Warriors of Sunlight wear our faith in Lord Gwyn on our sleeves," Or on their chests, depending on who you talked to. "and as such, we are privy to the most majestic of miracles. The Sunlight Spear." He said reverently.

Sensing the puzzled look Rise was giving him, Astaire trotted over and flipped open the latch on one of her windows, leading out to a small balcony. With an almighty flash of light, so intense it threatened to blind anyone making direct eye contact, a glorious golden javelin of light formed in Astaire's hand, manifesting from the talisman and slipping out between his fingers. Rise was wide eyed as he tossed the beam of light with practiced form, rocketing into the sky and piercing a cloud passing by.

The knight dusted off his hand as he tossed the talisman back with the rest of the pile, sitting back down and becoming absorbed in his box's contents once again. "...You're not gonna explain how the heck you just did that?!" Rise flipped, barely able to believe what she'd just seen. Magic inside the TV? Sure, Personas were easily capable of that. In real life? Nuh-uh, nope. Not possible. Out of everything written down on the list of things possible to do in real life, making bolts of Sunlight from bolts of cloth wasn't included.

Except in Lordran, it seemed. "Didn't I just…? It's a matter of equipment and faith, that's how I did it. Doesn't get much simpler than that."

"You're not seriously telling me that faith in this "Lord Gwyn" of yours gives you the ability to set stuff on fire with the power of the sun, are you?"

"Certainly not!" Astaire waved his hand dismissively. That was a relief, at least. "Sunlight Spear doesn't set anything on fire, not when pyromancy does that already." Uh oh. "Drawing upon the power of the pyromancy flame in your soul, harnessing the power of fire as once the old Lords did!" He explained boastfully.

Before she could utter a word of protest, the stream of smoke which had begun rising from Astaire's left hand burst into flame, replaced with a viscous, smouldering ball which Astaire held between his fingers. "Let me guess…" Rise slowly backed up from her seat towards the other end of the room, closer to the door. "...That's pyromancy, right?"

Astaire didn't answer. He seemed mesmerised by the clump of condensed heat he held in his hand. Though he didn't say it, Rise was right. Or half right, at least. This was no ordinary pyromancy. "...Chaos Pyromancy." He finally murmured, closing his fist and dissipating the flame. "That's not right. It can't be right. Something is wrong here." He mumbled to himself.

"You're tossing bits of the sun off my balcony and holding fireballs! What part of this was right to begin with?!"

"Well, besides that. Chaos Pyromancies are part of a Chaos Servant's arsenal, but for as long as I can remember my allegiance has been owed solely to Lord Gwyn. As a Warrior of Sunlight, I shouldn't be able to use it." He explained, massaging his head with the hand once on fire.

"Are you sure? You couldn't have just, like, picked it up at some point? Just found the secret to using it lying around?"

"I'm sure. I'm not even sure how I managed to use it there now, it just kind of happened."

The last part captured Rise's attention. Either Astaire was trying to hide something, or there was some unknowable force which was messing with him. Either way, his aptitude for things he supposedly had no knowledge of was becoming too frequent to ignore. Whatever was going on, she had a feeling a certain someone might have been able to help her.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the person who burst through the door at exactly that moment.

"Riseyou'reinalotoftrouble." Inoue-san blabbed out with nary a breath in between. He seemed to have gone completely off the deep end, and she could only imagine why as she glanced back at her companion. "I just got a call from one of my contacts saying that-"

Inoue stopped dead as he raised his hands and pressed against the wall, looking down the blade of Astaire's sword, pulled from nowhere in less than a second. "And just who might you be?" Both manager and idol let out a small squeak in response.

One extremely hasty explanation later, the Zweihander was tossed back into the bottomless box on the table. As Inoue calmed down and recovered from having his life flash before his eyes, he got back to the matter at hand. "Now, I don't want you to take this the wrong way… Sir." He settled for Sir, not knowing this hulkish brute's name. "But you're kinda the problem here. Just look at these." He said, handing Rise and Astaire a small set of photographs each.

It was the scene Astaire had caused out in the hallway a few minutes prior. "I ran into a guy on the way up here, we knocked into each other and he dropped these. I made sure to scoop a few up before he ran off." Well, that explained how he'd wound up with them as quickly as he did. "Boyfriend rumours and all that sort of stuff is fine, it's nothing we haven't hushed up before. But this?" He tapped the photo with Astaire's sword sitting dangerously close to the man who'd squared up to him. "This'll be a little harder to explain."

"Not to worry, I'm sure I'll get them to listen to reason one way or another." Astaire said, handing the photo back to him.

Inoue and Rise blinked, looking at each other. "What? No, I didn't mean for _you_ to-" Inoue began before being cut off at the sight of Astaire's hand in front of his face. He flinched on instinct, not fully over having been held at swordpoint.

"I won't hear a word of it! Ms. Kujikawa had nothing to do with the matter, it's not her issue to explain." He assured the both of them.

All the same, Rise didn't seem convinced. "Astaire-kun, really! We do this sort of stuff for a living, I really think it'd better for us to-"

"I appreciate your attempts to waylay me, Ms. Kujikawa, but I can't knowingly stand by and let someone else take whatever punishment befits my actions." He gave her a confident smile as he thumped a fist off his chest. "What kind of man or Sunlight Warrior would I be if I didn't see the consequences of my actions through to the end?"

That was easy for him to say, considering Astaire had never dealt with the press before.

Well, not without his sword anyway.

His declaration made, Inoue cleared his throat to grab his attention. "So, uh… Astaire-san, was it? Who exactly _are_ you in the first place?"

...Oh! Right! He'd completely forgotten! "Ah! Pardon me, I usually make a point of…" He straightened himself out and placed his hands behind his back. "I am Knight Astaire, and as of about 15 minutes ago I am Ms. Kujikawa's personal bodyguard. Sorry for nearly lopping you in two, by the way."

The explanation raised more questions than it answered, really. "You, uh… decide that all by yourself?"

"Ms. Kujikawa stressed the importance of not allowing people to come under the impression we were… _intimate._ It seemed as good an excuse as any, at the time."

Well... at least the boyfriend rumours would be quick to dissipate. "Uh-huh." Inoue massaged his temples as he tried to deal with the situation calmly. There were so many questions to ask and so much to take in, and he would have to know everything if he was to deal with Rise's little blunder fully. "You said you were a knight... and something about sunlight warriors?"

If Rise could have gone back in time and stepped on Astaire's foot before he'd brought them up, she would have done so in a heartbeat. It'd have made this so much less complicated. "Indeed. We Warriors of Sunlight devote ourselves partially to the helping of others in need. Ms. Kujikawa isn't the first soul I've accompanied to that end."

So he was a mercenary of some sort? How the hell had Rise come across someone like him? As far as Inoue was aware, she had been in her bedroom for most of the day, excluding her little outing with this Knight fellow. Was it someone she met in Inaba? No, definitely not, he had seen Rise with her friends several times before, lord knows he'd have spotted someone like him immediately. Speaking of Inaba, however, something about the fellow's eyes seemed awfully familiar. They exuded a air of resolve and loyalty similar to that of the grey-haired boy Rise had been fond of. Attempted lopping in half aside, he didn't seem like a bad person thus far.

"Well, Astaire-san, I hope you'll stay true to your word. I can't say you won't have a lot to put up with for a while, but if you work with Rise-chan and I, we might make it out of all this alright. Just don't do anything _too_ crazy, alright?" Something about asking that of a guy with a disappearing sword and some odd-sounding allegiances to the Sun didn't seem quite right. As imposing as he seemed, he doubted he had any idea what the press could do a person's psyche. Either way, with the situation he was in now, he trusted Rise to do what she needed to to keep the both of them out of trouble.

"Your concern is both noted and appreciated, Mr. Inoue."

Inoue turned to the door to leave, but as his hand met the knob, something wouldn't stop nagging at him. "By the way, Astaire-san, where did you say you were from again? I can't help but notice your lack of honorifics." One would think that having everyone else around him be addressed as -san, -chan or -kun would clue him in, but apparently not.

"Oh, my homeland? Well..." Oh dear, one more thing Astaire couldn't remember.

Sensing that he was on the verge of nearly burning his head in two again, Rise slipped up behind Inoue and hastened him towards the door. "Well, as long as he's here, where he comes from isn't important, right? I'm sure you two can talk all about it later, and besides, don't you have something to do for Kanami right now?"

"AAGH! THE MOVIE SHOOT!" Taking off like a suited-up bullet, Inoue rushed out the door and slammed it behind him. He did however take the time to open it immediately afterwards, and with a quick "Nice meeting you!" took off down the hallway again. If there was one thing Rise had to give her kouhai credit for, it was keeping Inoue busy when it most mattered. With him out of the way, she turned to a freshly-relaxed Astaire, who resumed his place at the table once again. He gazed out the window, watching the sun go down over the horizon.

"Aah, I haven't set eyes upon a proper sunset it a long time. How glorious it is." Anor Londo's sunny facsimile had been quite convincing, but nothing could beat the real thing.

The sight of the setting sun did bring a new dilemma to mind, however. "Um… Astaire-kun? This room only has one bed." It took a few seconds of looking between her and the bed to realise what she was getting at. His face went a shade closer to red as he averted his gaze, trying to think of a solution. "There isn't really anywhere else to sleep, either. I doubt spending the night in the bathtub would be very comfortable."

Finally, a clap of his hands. "The floor! I'll sleep on the floor!" The determined look on his face didn't make it look like he was joking either. Any form of sleep at all was a damn sight more than he'd gotten in Lordran. Of the many things he couldn't remember, sleep was amongst them. Sitting at a bonfire was the closest he ever got to long term rest. The floor would do fine.

Well, if the one sleeping on the floor was happy, who was she to argue otherwise? It was a far better option than the alternative, at least from a press standpoint. "Well, at least that's sorted. I'm gonna go get changed in the meantime, don't go peeking now~!" She finished with a wink.

"P-Peeking?! I would never! Why, the very thought of it makes me-!" Between his reaction in the hallway earlier and now, it was becoming very clear to Rise that Astaire was _very_ fun to tease. A stalwart knight he may have been, but even the slightest hint of risque implications was enough to make him a flustered mess. She giggled to herself as she thought about it.

"Heehee... I'm just kidding, Astaire-kun. I'm sure you're more decent than that." She added, grabbing her pyjamas from her suitcase and walking into the small en suite bathroom. She flashed a smile at Astaire before she shut the door behind her.

"He's kinda cute when he's embarrassed." She mumbled to herself.

 

* * *

 

 

Later that night, Rise lay staring at the ceiling, trying to get to sleep and failing miserably. To Astaire's relief and her own discomfort, her pyjamas weren't exactly breezy, meaning they weren't all that easy to move in either. She rolled over and snatched up her phone from her bedside table, quickly searching through her contacts trying to find the email address of the person she'd brought to mind earlier.

Bingo.

>Naoto-kun, are you busy right now?

It didn't take long for Naoto to reply. Rise smiled to herself for having guessed she'd be up this late at all.

Not especially. I have time to talk, if that's what you desire.<

Naoto brushed aside the case files she had laid about the desk, rubbing her strained eyes as she retreated back to her bed and threw herself on top of the covers. She tapped the light switch next to the headboard and covered her eyes, letting them rest after scanning several book's worth of case details. Paperwork was necessary, and Naoto didn't mind doing it in the slightest, but it could take a toll on even the most enthusiastic detectives from time to time. This was one of those times.

>Awesome! Anyway, do you remember the guy we met inside the TV?

Astaire-san, right? Yes, I remember. Why do you ask?<

>He came out of my TV today! One thing led to another and now he's my bodyguard."

He did what?<

After everyone had come piling out of their respective TVs, they found it noteworthy that Astaire hadn't joined them. Teddie had even made a point of hopping back inside and trying to find him with his limited scanner abilities, with little success. In truth, before he'd come piling out, the thought had even occurred to everyone that he might be dead altogether.

>He came out of the TV! We talked with Senpai, grabbed a bite to eat, threatened a reporter or two and here we are!

That sounds like quite the eventful day.<

>It sure has been. But whatever, I wanna ask you something about him, if that's alright.

Really? I'd imagine you'd know more about him at this point than everyone put together.<

>Well, it's not really about _him_ , it's more about some of the things he's doing...

It took a while, but Rise managed to list off everything which Astaire had done which didn't seem right in her eyes. Knowing how to eat with chopsticks straight out, how to use an elevator, his foul mouth in the TV... Rise couldn't see it, but the more she explained, the higher Naoto's eyebrows went up her head. Her curiosity was officially piqued.

Hmm. Indeed, now that I think about it, there were several things which seemed odd about him.<

>He doesn't seem to know he's doing it, either! Even if I asked him, he wouldn't be able to give me a straight answer!

This sounds intriguing. I would suggest bringing it up with everyone tomorrow.<

>...Tomorrow? What's happening tomorrow?

You weren't informed? Due to our recent exploits, Yu-senpai found that we were surprisingly close together when he left through his own television. Seeing this, he thought it very likely that we could travel long distances by using the Shadow World.<

>Wow, really? What about the shadows and stuff?

Senpai is a competent fighter in his own regard, and you will likely have Astaire-san to assist you during the journey. In any case, it isn't impossible to assume that this could be a reliable way of getting from place to place in very little time.<

>Awesome! So we're all meeting tomorrow? At Junes, right?

You guessed correctly. Whatever the case may be, I urge you to be careful tomorrow. Astaire-san may have been a warrior for a living, but he doesn't have a Persona. Keep that in mind.<

>Sure. Goodnight, Naoto-kun~!

Her mind now at ease and her heart freshly racing, Rise snapped her phone shut and set it back where it belonged. Finally, a way to see her friends again without worrying about distance! This had been the best thing she'd heard all day! This would also be a good opportunity for Astaire to make friends with everyone, seeing as his initial response to meeting new people today had ranged from stiffening up to nearly striking them down.

Rise rolled onto her side and once again shut her eyes, thoughts of all of her friends fresh in her mind. A small smile crept across her face as she pictured Astaire greeting everyone, the sun blazing down on them as they enjoyed their time together peacefully. No more murders, no more barriers caused by work, everything was just as she could have wanted.

For now, at least.


	4. Meeting of the Minds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A meeting within a dream, a strange series of events in another world, and a year-old confession.

Though his sleep was sound, Astaire's mind was not. A plethora of questions plagued him endlessly. Questions which Lordran hadn't even given him cause to ask before. Time away from his unabashedly violent existence gave ample opportunity for his mind to wander, pondering some of the many curiosities which he appeared to carry around with him.

For instance, he knew he was Just Astaire, Warrior of Sunlight. That much was a given.

...At least, he'd thought so up until now. The fractured state that his memories were clearly in gave him reason for doubt. The name Astaire was the clearest memory he had. Where other things had faded from his memory, there was no mistaking that he'd heard his surname pass the lips of every sane being he'd ever met in Lordran. But therein lay the problem.

Astaire was as clear as day. Just, however…

It brought to mind the voice he'd heard when travelling with the Investigation Team. The ethereal, lingering whisper which had briefly swam about in his head. It was the only entity which had addressed him as such. But where did it come from? Who could he possibly have known well enough that they'd claim to be his "best friend?"

This simply compounded on top of everything else. Questions upon questions upon questions. It was enough to drive a man quite mad. "Why? Why don't I remember so much about myself?" The knight wondered silently.

"You have only yourself to blame, you ingrate." He hadn't been anticipating a reply. Locked firmly in the realm of dreams, Astaire looked around himself wildly, seeking the source of the otherworldly voice. "I should hardly be surprised. A knight in shining armour you may be, but that alone does not a scholar make."

The picture in his mind's eye suddenly coalesced into an intelligible form. A being standing parallel to Astaire himself, a yellow glow emanating from underneath the black cloth hood and shimmering along the surface of Dragonslayer Ornstein's armour. There was only one being beyond Astaire who could've been dressed like that.

His shadow.

"You again? Why are you invading my dreams, you scoundrel?! Did I not kill you already?!"

The shadow sighed a corrupted, undead sigh. "Weren't you listening earlier? I am you, just as you are me. So long as you draw breath, so too shall I reside here inside you."

Well, it was better than having it be outside, Astaire supposed. "From what I was told, Igor made it sound as though I'd destroyed you completely. I'd imagine he'd be a greater expert on such matters than anything claiming to be me."

"Really, now?" The knight nearly leapt out of his skin as the shadow unhooded itself and was immediately altogether too close to him, pressing their foreheads together and glaring at him with the yellow orbs of light he called eyes. "I am a shadow. I know more about shadows than you know about yourself." He gave a smug, stretched grin. "But that's not saying much, is it?"

Astaire fearfully shoved his undead replica back, thankful it made no attempt to latch onto him again. "Though I must say, you did come bloody close. Closer than I imagine anyone has before."

"I did?" Astaire blinked in disbelief.

The shadow nodded. "That said, destroying my physical form won't let you be rid of me. Strike me down as often as you like, I'll simply reappear as quickly as I went." Not entirely dissimilar to how he himself existed once upon a time, Astaire thought. He pondered momentarily whether or not his Darksign had been transferred to his shadow, but at the moment that wasn't the most pressing matter.

He had to get rid of this monstrosity wearing his face. "Acceptance is the only way then, is that right? Very well, then. I accept you. You are me."

...

...

Nothing happened. The shadow shook its head and shrugged. "That was terrible. Just terrible. A confession is worth only as much as the amount of sincerity behind it, and you flummoxed that rather expertly. Feel free to give it another go, though."

"This is outrageous! You're an odious, snivelling rat! An insult to all that I represent as a Warrior of Sunlight! What do you expect of me?!"

Things got quiet all of a sudden, the shadow finding a smile forming on its undead lips. "Don't you mean as a Chaos Servant?" Astaire didn't reply as his train of thought shuddered to a grinding halt. The shadow turned, still wearing a smug smile. "Or was it a Darkmoon Blade? Princess Guard, maybe? Or perhaps a Transcendent Dragon?"

What in blazes was he on about? Astaire had always been a Warrior of Sunlight, of that there was no doubt. Of all details fogged and murky, this wasn't one of them.

Before he could open his mouth to pose a retort, the shadow piped up again. "Ah-ah-ah. I'll leave that for you to suss out. Think of as your first step towards proper acceptance. Wouldn't want to make it too easy, would we?" He sneered loathsomely as the world inside Astaire's head began to fade. "Look on the bright side, you have a right little knockout helping you along, don't you? Trudging around with someone as ravishing as Rise Kujikawa is enough to make even me jealous."

Astaire woke with a start, the urge to chase after his shadow and beat the daylights out of him brought to an abrupt halt. He clenched his fists as he tried his damnedest not to bellow out his frustrations. It was still dark, after all, and he could hear Rise's light breaths from the mattress above. Not desiring to wake her up, Astaire simply made do with letting the cloud of rage inside him dissipate naturally.

"Knockout? Ravishing? Gods, how inappropriate. Nothing a knight should be thinking, heavens above…" He thought to himself as he relaxed and laid back down, placing his hands behind his head. "Now I'll never get back to sleep. Blasted shadow getting my thoughts all out of sorts."

The slow rhythm of Rise's breathing seemed to have some kind of calming effect. The longer Astaire listened, the droopier he found his eyes becoming. Thoughts of what his shadow had said wallowed around in his quickly-waning pool of consciousness. Judging by his words, he seemed to have knowledge far beyond anything Astaire could even guess at. Hints at a past he didn't live, or at least had no knowledge of.

Yet in spite of this, his parting remarks concerning Rise were what troubled Astaire the most. He entertained, if only for a moment, that the smug, sneering, despicably strangle-worthy facsimile of himself was, in fact, a representation of his true self. Wouldn't that mean everything it said was some representation of his true feelings? Even the ones concerning…?

Nope. Not thinking about it. Not tonight nor any night to come. Astaire forced his eyes shut and brushed aside any and all thoughts he'd been pondering before. That yellow-eyed snake was some malicious, lying spirit designed to torment him. His words were worth less than dirt, surely. Despite his best efforts to plague him with Rise-centric thoughts, it wouldn't work! It wouldn't!

As Astaire felt himself drift off, he chanted such thoughts with gusto. Not a Rise-related thought to be had, absolutely not, not a hope in hell or anywhere else!

...

...

This was harder than Astaire had anticipated.

 

* * *

 

The night lingered on uneventfully after Astaire's brief run-in with his other self, making it seem like the morning had come even quicker than it had. The sun rose up over the skyline, illuminating the room and filling it with a pleasantly warm glow. Or rather, a glow which would have been pleasant if someone hadn't fallen asleep in a trench coat.

Needless to say, Astaire's awakening wasn't a pretty one. After not having properly slept since who-knows-when, getting up was the last thing on his mind. However, in the age-old choice between getting up or being boiled alive inside his coat, one route sounded much more comfortable than the other.

This didn't mean it was an easier option, unfortunately. Despite his normal knightly demeanour, Astaire wasn't one to deny that he wasn't a morning person. His movements were sluggish and his limbs felt heavy, and undoing the buttons on the front of his trenchcoat sounded nigh unbearable.

As he grunted and shifted about on the floor, Rise couldn't help but begin to stir as well. However, unlike her companion, she was more adept at rising in the morning due to the often taxing schedule she had to keep to. She threw off her covers, stretched, gave a yawn and then finally planted her feet solidly on the floor.

"Eurgh…" A particularly groggy knight grumbled as he began to fully awaken.

Rise quickly danced over Astaire's body as he rolled over onto his stomach to push himself off the floor. "I'm guessing that means you're awake, Astaire-kun?" She asked as she ducked into the bathroom to get changed. "I thought that someone who called themselves a Warrior of Sunlight would have an easier time waking up!"

Finally, Astaire managed to push himself to his feet, staggering slightly as he discovered one of his legs was still asleep. "Considering how long I was unconscious in the Velvet Room, I'm surprised I'm awake at all." Seeing as he could finally manipulate himself with greater ease, it took very little time for Astaire to unbutton the rest of his coat. As the cool air flowed in around his torso, he let out a sigh and spread himself out on the bed, stretching as he did. Utter bliss.

As a fully-clothed Rise emerged from the bathroom, she hadn't been expecting what was awaiting her. Astaire, the front of his torso on display through his opened trench coat, lying down on her bed and looking blissfully unaware that she was watching.

But she was watching, and indeed she found herself staring at him for a little longer than she cared to admit. Not because his body was chiseled to perfection, but rather the opposite. There was some muscle there, but ultimately Astaire was actually rather average when it came to his build.

This was weird. Astaire looked way too thin to swing around his Zweihander and carry a full suit of metal armour on top of that. Surely hulking all that around should have added SOME muscle to him? "...Huh, I thought you would've looked stronger than that." She said before she could stop herself.

As though an electric shock had shot through his body, Astaire bolted upright and covered his torso as best he could with his arms. "G-Gods above, please excuse me!" He wrapped himself up in his coat again and fastened the golden buttons on the front. "It shan't happen again, I assure you!"

From where Rise was standing, she thought he was getting much more worked up over this than he should have been. "It's fine, really! It's not that big of a deal!"

"Not that big of a deal?! Such wanton carelessness-" (and indecency, he thought inwardly,) "-is unbecoming of a knight, much less so in the presence of a lady!"

"...A Lady?" Many things Rise Kujikawa had been called, but never a Lady.

Astaire finished buttoning his coat and tried to get rid of some of the creases as best he could. "Indeed. The relationship between a Lady and her Knight is a strictly professional one, after all. Such displays cross boundaries not meant to be crossed by knights." He said with a straight face, as though reading the line from a history book. Modern knowledge or not, Astaire had an antiquated way of thinking.

Rise raised an eyebrow at him. "Aren't you just saying you're my bodyguard to keep everyone off our backs? You don't need to take it that seriously, you know." So help her, she'd make him think and act like a normal person eventually, no matter how long it took.

Astaire raised a finger to his chin and gazed at the ceiling in thought. "I mean… I suppose that's true. But what else am I to do to repay you for saving my hide and giving me somewhere to lay my head for the night?"

If he was anywhere near as stubborn as he was antiquated, this was going to take a while to shift. If she told him to quit the bodyguard act and just loosen up, chances are he'd still be stuck on the idea later. "If that's what you feel you need to do, then go right ahead. BUT!" She snapped, raising Astaire's shoulders in surprise at her outburst. "Before you're a bodyguard, or a knight or whatever, you're a friend, okay?" He tilted his head quizzically in response. "You can't fight it, it's the unwritten rule of the Investigation Team!"

"Shouldst thou from a TV abscondeth, communion amongst thine recoverers shalt thou partake in?"

...What did he just say? Oh, screw it. "Sure, something like that." Rise settled on as her answer. Whatever way he preferred to put it, it seemed to work wonders on Astaire's mood. He brightened up immediately as he turned away and stretched out a yawn. It was hard to believe when looking at him that the barely-muscled, easily flustered knight was the same beast who'd scared the hell out of a bunch of reporters just-

Uh oh. It all of a sudden came to mind that a day had passed since Astaire's spectacle in the corridor. Snapping up the remote control for the TV, Rise switched on to view the news as quickly as she could. A somewhat preoccupied Astaire had set about fastening the laces on the pointed black shoes he had been wearing the day before, which explained why it took him so long to pick up on what the small box was saying.

"...But more on that later. Also in the news, returning idol Rise Kujikawa was spotted yesterday with an unfamiliar male companion walking through the streets of Iwatodai City. The two stopped into a local restaurant together before leaving shortly after. Many fans and reporters speculated that the unknown male was likely to be Kujikawa's boyfriend…"

A lump formed in Rise's throat as she slumped back onto the bed and sat next to Astaire.

"...However, this idea was later scrapped after a crowd of reporters and paparazzi met with the couple outside Kujikawa's hotel room…" At the mention of this, both Rise and Astaire's heads shot up to look at the TV once again. "...Reporters were both shocked and terrified when Kujikawa's companion brandished a massive sword, easily measuring the height of the man himself, and proclaimed himself to be her bodyguard." Astaire grinned to himself and continued to work on his other shoe. "The man, who called himself "Knight Astaire," then proceeded to badger the reporters with threats of violence until they stood aside. The couple was last seen going into Kujikawa's hotel room, after which neither party came out."

...The young girl wasn't quite sure how to feel about this. The news continued, now showing the testimonies given by some of the reporters. "He was massive! I'd say about three… no, five inches taller than myself!"

"He had the look of a demon in his eye! He was mad, I tell you!"

"I'm surprised he didn't hurt himself or someone else with that sword. Does he even have a permit for that thing?"

As the anonymous readings continued, the knight could see that the situation had gone south very quickly. At the mention of the word "demon," his heart sunk deep down into his chest as he let out a sigh to try and relieve the pressure. He rested his head on his hand and spoke with a low, solemn tone. "This isn't what I intended… I didn't mean for things to turn out like this…" He murmured so quietly that Rise could barely hear him.

Feeling a weight on his shoulder, Astaire lifted his head, meeting Rise's gaze as he did. Her hand slid off his shoulder as she spoke. "Listen, Astaire-kun..." Two words in and the Knight already felt uncomfortable. "...I know you mean well, but… you can't treat everyone like you treated people in Lordran, they're too different."

"The last time this world had knights was nearly 500 years ago. People aren't used to seeing knights running around with swords and shields anymore."

To be fair, Astaire had noticed beforehand that warriors such as himself weren't all that common in Iwatodai. All the same he hadn't been expecting his fellow chivalric brethren to be out of commission for quite as long. "500 years? Really?"

The thought was interrupted by a rapid knock on the door, with whoever was on the other side sounding very eager to get in. As Rise went to look into the peephole on the door, Astaire found himself disregarding her previous comments as he latched his fingers around the Zweihander's hilt. His grip loosened as a familiarly estranged-looking Inoue half-fell in the door, clutching a folder in one of his hands. Between heavy breaths he began laying out sheets of paper on the table, handing Astaire and Rise pens as he went.

"Quick!" He panted, "Sign these! Rise, you sign this, this, this and this! Astaire-san…" Inoue shifted the remaining sheets of paper towards Astaire. "You sign these!"

Astaire wasn't quite sure what he meant by "signing" them, but he had a fair idea of what he was doing. He clutched the pen awkwardly and began writing on the only blank space on the sheet, situated at the bottom. Rise, on the other hand, had learned to read the fine print within the fine print when it came to signing anything, and quickly snatched up the rest of the sheets that Astaire wasn't working on.

Shuffling through the papers, Rise's eyes darted to and fro, taking in what they were all about. As she did, she began to see exactly what Inoue was up to. The papers were official documents, permitting Astaire to both work as a bodyguard and to carry his weapons as a result. Everything seemed fairly legitimate to Rise, until she came across the last sheet in Astaire's pile. Her brow lowered and one of her hands clasped violently onto Inoue's shoulder. With a small yelp, her manager was lurched away from Astaire as a very angry Rise hissed in his ear.

"A voluntary work agreement?!" She seethed, nearly deafening Inoue. "You're trying to trick Astaire out of getting paid as a bodyguard, aren't you?!"

"W-well technically he DID volunteer…" Inoue stammered, but Rise was having none of it. She tore up the page angrily, giving the remains back to her manager.

Still staring daggers at him, Rise turned away and went back to attend to the rest of the forms. Inoue could do little more than sigh. He had seen Rise angry before, but it wasn't something anyone got used to. He was glad his daughter wasn't as scary.

The minutes passed silently as Rise and Astaire signed the papers they had been given. By the end of it all, Astaire was left holding a small piece of paper, which Rise had taken care of for him. "What… is this, exactly?" He asked.

"Oh, that? It's a Tôrokushô. It allows you to legally carry that sword of yours. I'd attach it onto somewhere if I were you." Inoue explained. He had brought a length of string especially for the occasion, handing it to Astaire after explaining how to tie it. "Excellent. Now we won't get in trouble, isn't that great?"

Still, after all this Rise was ever more curious. "Why were you in such a hurry to get us to sign these anyway, Inoue-san?" She inquired. Her manager got up from sitting on the bed and made his way to the door.

Gripping onto the doorknob, he beckoned the two over to the front of the door. As they obliged, his tightened his grip and opened the door a crack. "This is why." As he twisted the knob, the door was practically wrenched off its hinges as a flurry of camera flashes assaulted their eyes, a wall of reporters filling the entirety of the corridor outside.

Their voices turned into an unintelligible cloud of noise, as evidenced by Rise's concerned expression and her inability to answer any of the questions being thrown her way. Her biggest concern was... "ENOUGH!" ...that Astaire didn't do exactly that. The tip of his sword swung out from underneath his coat and pointed towards the crowd, who gasped in unison and stepped away in turn. The noise died down almost instantly. "...If you have questions for Ms. Kujikawa, you will ask them one at a time." He said, lowering the blade slightly. Just as everyone seemed to calm down, they leapt out of their skins as the tip jolted in front of a reporter at the front of the crowd. "You there, speak!"

The reporter fumbled with his microphone with his newly-sweaty hands, but managed to pull himself together eventually. "A-Ah, right, yes!" He cleared his throat, trying to calm down. "Rise-chan, why haven't we seen this bodyguard of yours up until last night?"

Giving a nervous glance to Astaire, who still had his blade pointed at the reporter, Rise began to address the question. "He's… new. He hasn't been on the job for very long, you see…"

"In fact, we just finished filling out his paperwork right now!" Inoue added, holding up the folder for everyone to see. Several more camera flashes followed, but nowhere near as many as before.

Seeing as the reporter had very wisely shut up for now, Astaire pointed his sword towards a young female reporter at the front of the crowd. She squeaked at the sharp "whoosh" which the sword made as it swung her way. She flicked through her notebook with shaking hands, occasionally daring to glance up into Astaire's orange eyes. He looked at her with what may have been impatience, but she didn't think she was in much of a position to ask for clarification.

Finally she found the notes she had been looking for. "S-So, uh…" She swallowed, trying to choose her next few words carefully. "W-What were you two doing in the s-same room all night?"

The two of them blushed profusely as they suddenly comprehended how the situation looked out of context. "It's not what it looks like, honest!" Rise insisted, fists balled. "I only have one bed in the first place, so Astaire had to sleep on the floor!"

"Most bodyguards would wait outside the room though, wouldn't they?" The young reporter asked, eyebrow raised.

Oh, hell, it just got worse and worse. If they said he haD nowhere else to go that'd just raise further questions. "The further I am from Ms. Kujikawa, the more difficult it is for me to keep her safe. Should I be required to sleep at the foot of her bed to ensure her safety, so be it." Astaire took it upon himself to answer.

The reporter's voice had steadied, now more confident now than she was. "Aren't you worried that being so overprotective of Rise-chan risks invading her privacy? You can't be with her every single moment of the day, after all."

"I do not do my job in half measures. Should Ms. Kujikawa desire her privacy, she need only say so. But until then, come Hell or high water, nothing less than the world's end will keep me from watching over her." Something resembling a small smile could be seen spreading across Astaire's lips before he caught himself on and turned to the crowd again.

Surprisingly, they were silent. Each reporter could be seen scribbling down Astaire's words in their small notepads before they stopped to wait for someone to ask another question. Only one never came, which surprised Rise above all else. Not many people could silence a crowd of reporters like that. "Are we done here?" She asked the reporters, who looked amongst themselves in lieu of responding.

"Excellent. Goodbye." Astaire concluded as he shut the door on them all.

Rise and Inoue each sighed in relief as the situation came to a close. "Thank goodness… hopefully that'll tide them over until tomorrow, at least." The idol said, throwing herself onto the bed behind her.

"I have to say, I'm impressed, Astaire-san." At Inoue's words, the blue-coated knight turned to him, a quizzical expression on his face. "I never expected you to be good at dealing with tabloid journalists."

Rubbing the back of his head, Astaire couldn't help but crack a smile. "Well, I didn't really do that much, to be honest. I explained my situation with Ms. Kujikawa and little else, really." He replied modestly, conveniently ignoring the fact that he had held the crowd at sword-point.

Looking significantly better than he had upon arrival, Inoue stretched out and gave another sigh of relief. "Welp, that takes a load off of my mind! Maybe now I can finally focus on helping Kanami today!" He said as he made his way to the door. Thankfully, there were no reporters waiting outside this time. "I've got to head back to the agency, but I'll be in touch, okay? Stay safe, now!" He added half-way out of the door with a smile on his face.

The room became very quiet all at once without Inoue or the reporters to make things more excitable. With little else to do, that meant Astaire could go back to trying to find anything out of the ordinary in the bottomless box. He flicked open the latches and assumed his position at the table, ready to delve in. It was only when he felt Rise's gaze fall on him from across the room that he stayed his hand.

"Did you mean all that stuff you said?" Rise finally said, breaking the silence. "About watching over me all the time and stuff?"

Astaire shrugged. "Within reason, of course. If you take issue with it, then by all means-"

"No, not at all!" She said, suddenly sitting upright on the bed. That had been a little more insistent than she'd meant for. Even Astaire was giving her a funny look now. "It's just… not what I expected you to say. I know if I were around me 24/7 I'd get a little worn out as well."

He paused, bits of coloured rock-like material still filling his hands. "Pull the other one. Why ever would you think that?" He was asking sincerely, a genuinely confused look on his face. A look which bore a friendly smile as he continued, "You're easily the easiest person to talk to that I've ever known. What kind of black hearted fiend would dare say you're not enjoyable to be around?"

Rise felt very much on the spot on the other end of the look he was giving her. How the heck did she respond to that? From the way he simply went back to sorting through his things, she doubted he'd even realised what he'd said. She lay down again, becoming very good friends with the ceiling. She wasn't so foolish as to assume any number of men wouldn't give any number of arms and legs to be by her side for less than pure reasons. Such was life for an idol, no matter who they were.

However, that didn't even seem to have crossed Astaire's mind, or so it seemed. Maybe it was because he'd never seen "Risette" and all she got up to, but he'd been placed in what many would call an enviable position while ignoring the reasons it was enviable in the first place. Impure thoughts be damned, he simply liked being around her because he found her company enjoyable.

...It sounded nice when Rise thought about it that way. So nice that a smile was inevitable. 

 

* * *

 

As Rise checked her phone, she took notice that her schedule, for a short while, was completely empty. "Hmm…" She thought to herself, "...No time like the present, I guess." Shutting her phone down and letting out a yawn, Rise finally got up from her bed and approached Astaire, who seemed to be transfixed by a brilliantly curved golden sword. "Pack up your stuff Astaire-kun, we're going for a walk!" She exclaimed.

Within seconds, everything was gone. Having infinite space to toss things into storage must've been nice. "Righto then. Where shall we walk to?" Taking the initiative, Rise latched onto Astaire's arm and dragged him towards the TV. Luckily for him, she didn't see his face redden as she held onto him. Putting her hand into the TV's screen caught his attention, though. "W-Wait, what're you-!?" But it was too late. Still held together, Rise and Astaire fell into the flat-screen head first, en route to the Shadow World.

As the two fell, Rise retained a firm grasp on Astaire's arm. "Sorry about this! I'm not sure what'll happen if I let go of you halfway through!" She explained as the both of them fell through the rounded rectangles leading to their destination. However, the more Rise thought about the situation, the more she became aware that something was wrong. There was a nagging feeling in the back of her head telling her that she was forgetting something.

And then it hit her. "Astaire-kun, I just realised… this particular TV leads to that cavern I met you in." The look on Astaire's face told her that he wasn't aware of what she was getting at. "The same cavern which was destroyed when you took out your shadow, if Igor was telling the truth."

Now he got it. "What?! Where does that mean we're going now?!" A now very anxious Astaire asked. He didn't have to wait long to get his answer. The light at the end of the rectangles came into view, signalling the journey's end.

The single flash of light was cut unnaturally short as the duo arrived in their destination. Opening their eyes post-flash, both Astaire and Rise became alarmingly aware that the only thing they could see was each other. They had arrived to a world of complete, all-consuming darkness. Without a second to spare, Astaire bolted into action as he freed his arm from Rise's grasp and dove into the bottomless box. His breaths were heavy and panicked, getting worse the longer he had to look.

"Astaire-kun, what's going on?!" Rise panicked with him. There was no way he'd know more about the Shadow World than she did, but the way he was acting made it seem like he had something in mind. Judging from the look on his face, it wasn't good.

But Astaire wasn't listening, solely devoted to rummaging through the box like a madman until, finally, "There!" He shouted triumphantly, just before he clutched Rise out of the air beside him and into his arms. "Hold on tight and brace for impact." He whispered to her. Not needing to be told twice, Rise wrapped her arms around his neck for stability. In the space of an instant, their descent halted. It was like hitting the bottom floor in the world's fastest elevator. Under normal circumstances, the change in momentum would likely have made messy puddles of them both.

Then again, nothing about this place was normal in the slightest.

It was silent. Not quiet, but silent. Rise could swear she was hearing the blood rushing around in her head, coupled with Astaire's breaths and the sound of his heartbeat. There was literally nothing else to hear. She almost felt inclined to say something for the sake of having something else to focus on. "It's alright, Astaire-kun, you can put me down now." She settled on.

However, Astaire didn't let go. He simply began walking forwards, his eyes fixated in front of him. "I'm sorry, Ms. Kujikawa, but I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why not? Didn't you say you'd do whatever I told you to?" Rise asked not in anger, but curiosity.

"I have been to this place before. In Lordran." Rise's eyes widened as Astaire lowered his head and put her on his shoulders. Luckily she had decided not to wear a dress today. With his hands newly freed, Astaire reached into the bottomless box and pulled out a broken hilt, evidently from a damaged sword. He tossed it down several feet in front of him.

It was immediately swallowed by the darkness. Like it had fallen through quicksand.

"The Abyss. I know not what it is, nor why it would be here now, but I do know that it was not meant to be traversed by humans or undead." Raising his right hand, Astaire showed Rise what he had been looking for in the bottomless box, a thin green ring on his index finger. "It is only by using the ring of Knight Artorias that I can traverse it myself. It is in both our best interests that you not touch what I'm standing on."

"You don't need to tell me twice." Rise said as she got comfortable on Astaire's shoulders. "I don't think summoning my Persona would be a good idea right now, so how are we going to find our way out of here?"

"I propose that we keep walking. This area may resemble The Abyss, but it cannot be the real thing. It must have a limit."

There was no other way to go but forward. The sound of Astaire's shifting coat filled the silence as the duo continued into the darkness.

"This doesn't make any sense." Rise piped up, the silence of the void beginning to wear on her. "The TV world's supposed to represent people's inner thoughts. Why isn't there anything here?"

"What do you mean? Igor said everything else was destroyed. I was under the impression that this was relatively normal." Astaire replied, sending his gaze upwards to meet Rise's. It wasn't like he was in danger of running into anything, after all.

"Nope! Stuff appears here in spite of yourself, you can't control it." She continued, looking into Astaire's eyes for lack of anything else to look at. "This world represents strong memories and desires which people have locked inside themselves. That's what's bothering me."

Memories and desires? From what he had experienced thus far, Astaire wasn't sure he had much of either. His other self seemed to be holding back many details of his past beyond those he could remember and he hadn't thought about what he wanted in a long time, save for not dying. Did that mean if he thought about it now, something would appear? It was worth a shot, at least. Astaire's body had practically started moving automatically, he had been walking for so long. He closed his eyes.

What were the things he could remember most vividly? Lordran, of course. Firelink Shrine was plenty familiar. The light of the sun as seen from the Undead Burg's battlements. The brief horrors of Oolacile before he'd scarpered. Rise.

Woah, wait, hold on a second, not that last one. The rest were fine, keep them. Cut that last one out.

In between recalling his past and fervently denying the present, Astaire failed to take note of what was happening around him. Only Rise got a good glimpse of the effect he was having on their surroundings as the Abyss seemed to peel away underneath them.

Desires. What could he class as desires? Helping others was a given. Specifically, protecting others from harm. Keeping people safe, to put it another way. This time he made deadly sure to keep any twin-tailed idols as far away from his thoughts as possible.

"Astaire-kun, look!" Rise exclaimed, tapping on his head to bring him back to reality. As he came to his senses, the young knight lightly gasped in surprise as he saw the Abyss practically melt away before him. In it's place stood something very different and much more pleasant to look at.

Where once there was darkness, there now lay rounded walls amongst ruined stone structures, retaken by moss and ivy which crawled around the remains. "Firelink?" Astaire considered briefly. It was certainly a similar flavour to the peaceful sanctuary he knew so well, but a different taste all the same. For one, Firelink Shrine hadn't been located in the middle of a forest, nor had it been this big. A pleasant shade was cast as trickles of sunlight lay upon the leaves and branches overhead.

Despite the lovely scenery, one thing caught Rise and Astaire's eyes above all else. Or two things, to be precise. Two large stone statues stood upon thick round pedestals embedded in the ground. The first depicted Astaire and Rise, wearing his armour and her school uniform respectively. The heavier of the two looked to be charging at some unforeseen foe, while the other pointed in the direction he was charging, Kouzeon's visor covering her eyes.

The second statue showed the same two people dressed very differently. Astaire wore his Velvet trench coat, while Rise wore her casual clothing. Astaire was knelt down in front of her, one hand on his stony heart and the other on the ground. The stone visage of Rise looked down with a kindly smile on her face.

What was especially telling was that they looked very much new, bereft of overgrowth of any kind. "These must be your memories!" Rise noted in awe. "And look, there's more pedestals too!" True enough, beyond the adorned two, a good sixteen pedestals stood parallel to one another, with a large white gate at the end of them.

Astaire rotated on the spot, taking in the surroundings. "It's far nicer than anything I've seen in either of our worlds." The area seemed similar to the Darkroot Garden, except it wasn't as dark, dangerous or home to endless supplies of phantoms.

"Maybe this whole place represents your desires as well, then!" Rise added happily, checking out the statues of her and Astaire with great interest. They really were quite intricately detailed. If they weren't so big she might have tried asking Astaire to bring one back with them, but she doubted even he was that strong.

While she was taken with how good a likeness of the two of them they were, Astaire's thoughts were elsewhere. He ran a hand across one of the empty platforms, gazing down towards the white gate at the end. "It's curious." He said loud enough for Rise to hear. "If these are indeed my memories, why do they only go so far?"

Not being able to see the forest for the trees seemed pretty appropriate, given their surroundings. "Maybe something good'll happen when all of them fill up!" Rise suggested.

"Or something bad." Astaire suggested back. Given the environment he'd been in up until now, Rise couldn't really blame him for being a little pessimistic.

Didn't mean she wasn't going to try and change that, though! "C'mon, Astaire-kun!" She pumped her fists energetically. "If you did all that stuff on your own like you said you did, we can take anything that this world throws at us if we work together, right?! Let something bad happen, I dare it!"

The look of bright-faced, righteous determination on Rise's face was too adorable to ignore. As though hooked up to a fresh battery, Astaire felt his energy skyrocket as the outpouring of positive energy from him shorter companion surged through him through his shoulders. "Right. Right! How right you are, Ms. Kujikawa!" He grinned, balling his own fists as he craned his neck back to face her. "In here we're a team, and as a team we're unstoppable! We showed that once, we can show it again!"

Now both abuzz from each other's energy, it shook Rise all the more as Astaire's stance suddenly tightened. His legs parted and his expression hardened. "Did you hear that? Something's coming." He said quietly, ears peeled.

Apparently Rise didn't take the hint. "What?! What is it?!"

A rustle from a nearby bush caused Astaire to swing around abruptly. He prepared himself for battle, steadying his mind for whatever was about to pounce them. In this sort of environment, it could have been anything.

"Rrrrrrrr…." Something growled from within the bush. Before anyone could react, a blue blur shot out of the shrubbery and landed before Astaire and Rise. The terrifying beast in question? "Do you know how long I've been looking for you guys?! Where were you two hiding all this time?!" It was Teddie. "Eh…?" The bear tilted his furry head to the side, giving the duo a suspicious look up and down. "Don't tell me you two were doing lovey-dovey things in private while I was looking for you!"

"L-Lovey-dovey?!"

"What?! What are you-"

It was only at Teddie's words that they realised Rise was still atop Astaire's shoulders, having forgotten to climb down after traversing the Abyss. As one tried to get off, the other tried to adjust and let them down safely. The whole ordeal looked incredibly awkward. "I can't believe you, Rise-chan! Think of the scandal! People around the nation will explode upon sight of this strapping young man you're carting around!"

Stomping her foot on the ground angrily, Rise glared daggers at Teddie. "It's not like that, you stupid bear! We were just-!" Just what? Walking into a world of pure darkness which had taken over Astaire's version of the Shadow World to suddenly appearing in a luscious garden-like area based on his desires and memories?

Yeah, sure, that old predicament.

"But never fear! I'm sure if we pay off any witnesses to the act, this whole ordeal will never reach the public's ears…" Teddie continued, a not-so-subtle mischievous look plastered across his face.

Unfortunately for him, neither Rise nor Astaire were having any of it. Stepping towards him in unison, both of them grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, clutching onto the large zipper which kept his head in place and giving him a look which would have bore holes into diamonds. Rise pinched a tuft of fur between her fingers. "Oh my, Teddie! Your fur's grown so long since the last time I saw you…" She said in a faux-worried voice, albeit one which was very convincing. "We should give the poor little guy a haircut, don't you think?" She added, turning to Astaire.

"W-wh-what?! No, no! Nononononononono-!"

"Perhaps we should." The knight replied. Teddie's struggles only became more frantic as he found himself at the end of the Zweihander's blade, with Rise pretending to size him up as she kept her grasp on him.

It all became too much for one bear to handle. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please don't ruin my beautiful Teddie fur! I won't tell a soul, I swear!" He cried, bowing overdramatically at the feet of his tormentors, who looked at each other and couldn't help but crack a smile. Crouching down to face Teddie head-on, Rise placed her hand gently on his head, causing him to look up at her with tears in his eyes.

She shot him a soft smile. "It's okay Teddie, I forgive you." A smile which was topped with a set of dagger-like eyes. "As long as you don't tell anybody else, that is."

Between the tall guy with the taller sword and Rise-chan with that look in her eye, it was hard to tell who was more dangerous. Teddie's hair stood on end as he quickly hopped onto his stubby feet and presented a manic thumbs-up. "You got it, Rise-chan! Let's go and meet everyone else before anything else dangerous happens!" Considering that his two followers now no longer had any complaints, he began backtracking the way he had came through the Shadow World.

 

* * *

 

"Hmmm."

"Hm?"

"Mmhmm."

"What're you hmm'ing at now?" Kanji asked. He had been quite content lying back with the sun covering his face, but Naoto had been going on like this for a while now without explaining why. He was more curious than annoyed by this point as he peeked an eye open to see what she was up to.

He saw Naoto scribbling away in a small blue notebook, occasionally tapping on the side of it as she pondered what to write next. "I've been trying to summarise everything I can deduce about Astaire-san before he arrives. Simply looking over what we already know may reveal something new." She answered without lifting her head.

This answer seemed sufficient enough for Kanji, who laid his head back in his seat once again. They had been sitting like this for some time, not saying anything but occasionally taking an interest in what the other was doing. Despite his best efforts, Kanji still found conversing with Naoto somewhat difficult. He berated himself mentally for it. A man shouldn't have trouble talking to a girl! Absolutely not!

...Even one as cute as Naoto. "Gaaaah…" Kanji groaned. He pressed his can of melon soda against his brow, finding comfort in the cool condensation which transferred to his head.

"If you're too hot, perhaps you'd be better off sitting out of the sun." A preoccupied Naoto suggested. However, the only other shaded seat was next to her.

Oh to hell with it. "Sure. Sounds good." Better to make a start on improving, at least. Taking a seat beside her, Kanji resumed putting the can to his head as he tried to cool off in the incredibly strong heat. "...Wonder where everyone else is. You sure this is the time they told us to meet them at?" He asked casually, trying not to stick his nose into Naoto's notes.

She flipped a page and ran a finger down a small list she had written. "Truthfully, it isn't." Looking away for a fleeting moment, Naoto's voice lowered as she talked. "I.. invited you out early. That is alright, isn't it?"

Hiding his obvious blush was impossible, but Kanji figured he'd be able to pass it off as sunburn by this point. However, this new development wasn't exactly helping his condition thus far. Naoto had gone to the trouble of inviting him out here early and he'd done little else but badger her about what she'd been doing and sit around waiting for everyone else, not knowing better.

"Well, better late than never." She'd made an effort, so damn in all if he wasn't going to make one too. Kicking his seat onto its hind legs and swinging on them, Kanji sat forward to balance himself in his new position. Keep it casual, that's what to do. "So Naoto…" He began, "...whatcha been up to since we solved the case?" Easy, easy. Anybody could ask that.

"I've had numerous other cases to busy myself with. I shirked off quite a number of other commitments of mine during last year, and I need to make up for it in as timely a manner as possible." Or all at once, in other words.

"Really? Seems a little reckless, don't you think? Ever stop to give yourself some time off? Break or two never hurt anybody."

A small smile curled upon Naoto's lips. "That's what I'm doing right now. I said I needed to catch up, not that I was catching up." This seemed somewhat mischievous for Naoto, but if her smile was anything to go by, it could only be assumed that she was enjoying herself. It had Kanji's stomach butterflies kicking off again, if nothing else.

Best to take advantage of her good mood. This was easier said than done, however, as Kanji found himself stammering the words out. "S-say, Naoto? You like m-movies, right?" The young detective lifted her head and raised an eyebrow for the first time in a long while. "Just this guy I know suggested one that's playing in Okina. I-it sounded a little complicated for a guy like m-me, so I was wondering…"

"I'd be glad to." Kanji was taken somewhat aback by her pre-emptive response, but as he thought about it he knew he should have expected as much. This was no ordinary girl, after all. Trying to tiptoe around a subject when talking to the Detective Prince was no simple feat, to be sure. "Truth be told, I was hoping I could find someone to go with myself. It seems fortune has favoured us both." She continued calmly. One thing was certain, Naoto was a lot calmer than Kanji by this point.

"R-really?! Awesome!" Catching himself on, he cleared his throat. "I-uh.. *ahem* I mean, uh.. good. Nice. Lookin' forward to it." He stumbled over his own tongue, trying not to expose just how happy he was. To a keen eye, it may have seemed that Naoto's small smile widened ever so slightly at his display. However, Kanji's keen eyes were better adjusted to needles and thread, not faces.

It seemed that he had asked at just the right time, too. A small group of three people had appeared from the elevator doors inside and were making their way to the table. "Oh! Have you two been here long?" Chie shouted as they made their way to the usual spot in the food court.

"Sorry if we kept you waiting, I had some trouble picking an outfit." Yukiko explained, not doing a very good job at hiding the fact that she was all dressed up for Yu coming over. Her thin checkered dress seemed to have been picked out just for the occasion, too. It bore the usual red and white pattern that Yukiko liked, plus a thick white ribbon to top the whole thing off, but nobody could recall ever seeing her wear it before, not even Chie. One could only assume that it had either been bought very recently, or kept in hiding for the perfect occasion.

Yosuke on the other hand hadn't put in that much effort. He was wearing what he always wore. "Why aren't the others here yet? I thought Yu was a punctual sort of guy most of the time." He commented, noticing that quite a few chairs surrounding their usual table were empty. "You don't think he's having problems managing on his own, do you?"

Chie thumped her fist into Yosuke's arm. "Of course not, you idiot! He's gone into the TV world before, hasn't he? He was fine every other time!"

"Yeah, but he had Rise to back him up, if nobody else! Hell, he could even have jumped out at any time and gotten help from us if he needed to!"

Seemingly unfazed by her boyfriend's absence, likely due to her confidence in him, Yukiko spoke up as well. "Speaking of which, how do you think Rise and Astaire-kun are holding up?"

Naoto took this question, flicking to the front of her notebook again. "If my hunch is correct, they've likely spawned in to the TV world at an unknown location, hence why we decided to have Teddie meet up with them upon arrival." Despite her still voice, a look of concern leaked into Naoto's eyes. "...Although he too is taking his time, it would appear."

This was starting to seem like a worse and worse idea every second. However, Kanji didn't seem fazed by any of it. "Did you see those two take out that bigass shadow last time? They'll be fine. Worst comes to worst, Rise can probably find everyone if she has to." He sipped his melon soda nonchalantly. "You're all gettin' way too worked up over this. If all the stuff we went through last year couldn't prepare them for this, nothing will."

Still, Chie didn't look any more relieved than she had been.. "I dunno… what if something does happen to them? How will we know if something goes wrong?"

"Oh, ye of little faith." came a familiar voice from behind her. "It'll take a little more than a few shadows to stop me." His voice brimming with confidence, Yu Narukami stood before them in the flesh. Before anyone else could react, Yukiko had leapt out of her seat and into his arms, noticing the rapidness of his heartbeat. "Though I will admit, I'm kinda worn from the run over…" If a bit of sweat on his forehead was all he'd sustained, nobody could complain.

It had to be noted that everyone had usually gone straight home after traversing the TV world for even short amounts of time, due to the amount of exhaustion it caused them. However, Yu was eventually going to have to run back over to his own TV as well. This seemed like it may cause problems later, but for now everyone was happy just to see Yu again in the real world.

Especially Yukiko. "I just knew you'd make it on your own!" She grinned widely as she clutched her man ever tighter. It was only when she noticed a shade of purple begin to creep into his skin that she decided to finally let go. "Sorry! It's just so good to see you again!"

"Under better circumstances this time, too." Yu said, nodding. He pulled up a seat and sat down next to his girlfriend, kicking his feet up onto the table. "No case, no murders… it's a nice change of pace for once."

The sound of flickering pages filled the air as Naoto returned to her notebook. "Best not to get ahead of ourselves, Senpai. We still don't know what these past few developments could mean…"

"You mean about Astaire? I'm sure it'll be fine. Weirder things have happened, you gotta admit." He replied, putting his hands behind his head. "Though ome to think of it… aren't he and Rise here yet? And where's Teddie?" It had only just occurred to Yu that not everyone was present, and those who weren't hadn't been buying food or drinks for everyone else.

A dismissive Yosuke idly flipped his phone out to check the time. "I'm sure they're doing just fine. Heck, Teddie took down Rise's shadow when we all couldn't, right? He could probably manage just fine on his own."

 

* * *

 

_"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"_

"Calm yourself, Penguin Creature! We have to stick together!"

_"I TOLD YOU ALREADY THAT I'M A BEAR!"_

The blade of Astaire's sword swept through the torso of a stone knight, reducing it to little more than rubble, while Teddie launched ice magic at the strange tree-like creatures which accompanied them. He was trying his damndest to avoid the tendrils which lashed at him while he did, slapping against the ground with an intimidating crunch. "Astaire-kun, to your left!" Rise called, Kouzeon's visor affixed upon her head.

"Blasted shadows! Begone with you!" The knight cried, crushing another two tree monsters with one swipe. He turned to see another of them attempting to sneak up on Teddie, responding by deftly tossing a thin throwing knife into its back. Little damage was done, but the noise made alerted Teddie to the monster's presence. Swiping it away with the oversized claw on his arm, he reeled around and narrowly avoided being flattened by the hammer of another giant stone knight.

He found himself backed up against Astaire and Rise's sides. From the looks of it, they'd all backed up at once, showing all too clearly that they were completely surrounded.

Much to Rise's surprise, Astaire put away his sword, now of all times. "You're… you're not giving up, are you?"

"Stay close to me, as close as you can." He said, forming a bright red flame between his hands. Not one to oppose the wishes of a man holding fire, Teddie also backed up as close to Astaire as he could, growling at the monsters as they drew in closer.

Instantly, the world was ablaze. As Astaire slammed his hands into the ground, large pillars of fire shot up like molten geysers from the earth, leaving thick puddles of oozing lava at their bases. The air became dry and unbearably hot as the Chaos Pyromancy went on, leaving the stone knights and tree monsters to burn and crumble under the intense heat. Both Rise and Teddie dared not move, lest the lava engulf them too.

Even when the fires stopped rising from the earth, the lava remained. It got to the point where there was nothing left to kill, just a few charred bodies and piles of rubble. "Wow, that was incredible!" Teddie exclaimed. "Now how do we get out of here?" He added, beads of sweat forming on his brow as he looked at the lava.

"Easy. Just follow my lead." Casual as could be, Astaire put a foot out and walked through the lava without so much as acknowledging it was there, leaving a bewildered bear and idol behind him. "It's magic born from Chaos, but it is magic nonetheless. It's not real lava." To further prove his point, the air rapidly cooled down again as the lava simply disappeared into thin air, as though nothing had ever been there to begin with. Both of its former captives breathed heavy sighs of relief, not least because the air was actually cool enough to breathe again.

Their sighs bought them but a miniscule amount of time. "Gwyn's beard!" A thick pillar of wind decimated the ground where Astaire once stood, having deftly rolled at the last second. More shadows set upon them, familiarly large mouths with hanging tongues, constructed from cloth, wood and tree roots.

Having been performing analytics the entire time, Rise was beginning to take note of an odd pattern in the way Astaire fought. The tree creatures and the stone knights, monsters neither she nor Teddie had seen before, fell before him like he'd done it all before. Yet as the scale slid more towards forms they recognised, large mouths, embraced dancers and the like, he began to struggle. Magic in particular seemed to rattle him the most.

"Have no fear, Teddie is here!" The energetic ball of fur cried as he smashed his Arcana card. Kamui-Moshiri, his ultimate persona, rained down a storm of deadly ice, tearing up the shadows which were gradually coming closer to tearing Astaire to shreds. The fellow himself gave a sigh of relief as he fell back onto the grassy hill they were fighting upon.

We seemed indomitable, but even he couldn't keep it up forever. "These monsters are unlike anything I've ever seen. Those wind sorceries of theirs are a force to be reckoned with." The tatters on the ends of his coat were becoming harder and harder to ignore, torn away mostly by the cutting gusts of shadows with wind magic. "The sheer amount of new sorceries is staggering, actually."

Compared to her knight and Teddie, Rise was practically spotless. If nothing else could be said about Astaire, it was impossible to deny that he was one hell of a bodyguard. Luckily, Teddie seemed to be doing just fine and had no need for healing in the first place. "You need to stop running into these things head-on, you're going to really hurt yourself if you're not careful!" Rise urged as her healing wave washed over Astaire for the umpteenth time.

Trying his best not to be deterred, Astaire swung his sword over his shoulder again and blissfully exhaled as the pains in his limbs subsided. "Truth be told I'm rather at a loss… I don't have anything that can counter all these different magics." He admitted, turning to Teddie. "You appear to be doing just fine, however. I feel somewhat inadequate by comparison."

"Oooh!" Teddie perked up, "Does that mean I can be Rise-chan's bodyguard instead?"

"Don't even think about it."

"Don't talk such rot." Both other parties said in unison.

Laughs were exchanged at the inhuman noise Teddie made as he deflated in response. Ever still, the trio sallied forth. From the looks of it, Teddie and Astaire must have been doing a good job, as the number of shadows had diminished spectacularly, not even approaching numbers capable of surrounding them again.

It was only once the shadows' numbers began to thin that something began to feel off. Astaire found himself tripping over his own feet as they walked, staggering left and right as he lost balance for seemingly no reason. He found his eyelids drooping as singular shadows seemed to split into twos and threes, an indiscernible haze fogging up his thoughts. "Ms. Kujikawa… Teddie…" He managed to say, sounding like he hadn't slept in weeks. "I believe it accurate to say that something is wrong with me…"

Each word sounded weaker than the last. It all came to a head as Astaire drove his sword deep into the ground for support, reduced to kneeling on one knee. His companions broke into a sprint towards him, with Rise taking the time to check his vitals mid-run. It didn't make sense. His vitals were rock solid all across the board, what could it possibly have been?

She found herself crouching next to Astaire with such force that her glasses nearly fell off the end of her nose. He was sweating profusely and seemed to have paled a few shades, clutching at his head as if trying to forcibly rip out whatever was clogging his mind. "Astaire-kun, look at me! Are you poisoned or something? Can you tell what's wrong?" She carefully brought his face around to look hers dead on, his gaze delirious and unfocused.

Looking at him dead on, Rise found the source of the problem. She'd been looking at him through it.

"Teddie! You didn't make him a pair of glasses!"

Realising this was his fault, Teddie nearly leapt out of his skin. "Uwaaaaah! I completely forgot to make a pair! We need to get out of here right now!" Without warning, he lifted Astaire completely above his head, which in itself was rather impressive, and began sprinting in the direction they had been heading in until now. Seeing little alternative but to accompany them, Rise ran as fast as she could in their wake, occasionally glancing between the bushes and trees to make sure nothing else was going to jump them.

 

* * *

 

Naoto's foot tapped impatiently off the ground as she looked intently at her watch. Enough time had passed to classify Rise, Teddie and Astaire's absence as suspicious, and despite everyone else's confidence in them, (well, they could speak for Teddie and Rise, at least,) Naoto's concerns didn't quell as time went on. Her free hand considered reaching for her revolver and hopping into the TV with everyone altogether, but in spite of him saying otherwise, Yu still looked pretty beat from his previous venture. To jeopardise the safety of the group's appointed leader would jeopardise everyone else's, after all.

...Still, it couldn't hurt to take a peek, right?

Naoto pushed herself off her seat and sealed her notebook into her breast pocket. "If it's alright with you all, I'm going to take a quick look inside the TV. Just to be sure." Not waiting for a response, she turned on her heel and began walking off. She didn't get far however; she was barely in the door to Junes' main building when she bumped into something and ended up flat on her back. The thing in question being Teddie.

"Owwww… You need to pay more attention to where you're running, Nao-chan!" He rubbed his head overdramatically, not noticing that Naoto was lying momentarily stunned on the floor. She shook her head, straightened her hat and then straightened herself as she sat up. A hand was reached to her, with a tall man in a blue coat on the other end of it, accompanied by Rise, who was peeking out from behind him and trying to stifle a laugh

"Are you alright, Miss?" He asked. Judging from the fact that he had shown up with Teddie and Rise, Naoto could extrapolate that this was indeed the knight from the TV, albeit without his armour. Kindly refusing his hand, she picked herself up and dusted herself off.

Now satisfied that her friends (and the knight) were safe, Naoto began walking back to the group at the table. On the way, she was the one to hold out her hand to AstaIre this time. "Nice to meet you again. My name is Naoto Shirogane."

Astaire accepted the handshake with a broad smile on his face. "Knight Astaire. A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Shirogane." Now that she had heard it for herself, Naoto could see what Kanji had been getting at. Being called Miss or Mister did make her feel old.

But that aside, "Your face has changed quite a bit since last we met. Might I ask why?"

Of course, Astaire had failed to realise that Naoto had never seen him as a human. "Sorry, but it's had me stumped for the past while as well. To be honest, the allure of having a normal face is somewhat soiled by not knowing why I have it."

Taking out her notebook and retrieving her pen from behind her ear, Naoto jotted this down. "Well, hopefully some of the questions and answers I'll be giving will help shed some light on all this."

"Questions?"

As the two spoke, Teddie and Rise took their respective seats at the table. "Jeez, think you took long enough?" Kanji asked, "My soda's gone warm now…"

"Sorry! We had some trouble getting through the monsters in there; it was awful!" Apologised Rise, clapping both hands together.

Pondering this for a second, Chie piped up, "Even with Astaire-san and Teddie? What the heck were you fighting in there?"

"All sorts of crazy stuff!" Teddie exclaimed, "There were statues, monsters that looked like trees with these creepy tendrils that tried to slap you across the face like this!" To further expand on his point, Teddie swiped at the air with his claw, narrowly avoiding hitting Kanji in the head.

Of course, Rise wasn't forgetting the most vital point of note regarding their lateness. "Not only that, but Astaire went all that time without a pair of glasses on." Her eyes darted in Teddie's direction, staring daggers. "Apparently SOMEONE forgot to make him a pair."

Everyone now turned their attention to Naoto and Astaire as they took their seats. In particular the knight who had traversed the TV world with neither a Persona nor a pair of glasses to keep him safe. From the looks of it, he was completely fine.

"...Strange. Last time someone stayed too long in the TV world was when Nanako was kidnapped." Yu said, echoing everyones thoughts. While the experience had been painful at the time, the fact that they had overcome it unharmed in the end made it easier to talk about, in Yu's mind. "But you seem completely fine, and without a Persona at that. What's your secret?"

Popping over the Bottomless Box and reaching inside, Astaire retrieved a small handful of green herbs, which he promptly began chewing on, screwing up his face as he did. It was either incredibly sour or painfully bitter, from the looks of it. Nevertheless, he managed to answer Yu's question while trying to hold back tears. "Green Blossom. It's a plant which helps restore one's stamina much quicker than usual." Noticing that Yu was looking quite tuckered out himself, he brought out another handful of the herb and handed it to Yu.

Considering Astaire's reaction, it may not have been wise to eat it at all. Then again, to say that Yu Narukami hadn't eaten weirder things in his life would be an outright lie, so why stop now? He grabbed the Green Blossom and placed it all in his mouth at once.

To say his reaction was bad would be a gross understatement. Tears streamed from his eyes as his fist slammed into the table, the rest of his body trying desperately to swallow the horrible herb. With some effort, he did indeed manage to get it down his throat. Upon swallowing it, he swiped up Kanji's soda and chugged the rest of it down, not waiting to ask for permission.

Finally, he gasped as his lips parted with the sweet liquid. "I wasn't expecting it to be that bad…" He said, noticing that Astaire was still chewing on his piece, like a piece of chewing tobacco.

"Taste aside, do you still feel tired, Mr. Narukami?" He questioned.

Now that he brought it up, Yu did indeed notice that he was no longer as fatigued as he had once been. It felt similar to when he had employed the help of the Fox and its leaves, but the effect carried over to the real world as well. Not to mention the Green Blossom tasted like crap. "Now that you mention it… I don't."

Catching himself on, Yu turned to an understandably miffed Kanji. He scratched the back of his head and awkwardly laughed as he rolled a couple of coins over to him, enough to cover the cost of another soda. Kanji accepted them with a nod. After this whole ordeal, Yu cleared his throat and straightened himself up, holding out a hand to Astaire.

"In any case, it's nice to see you again." He said with a gentle smile. The knight returned his smile with one of his own, grasping his hand firmly and shaking it. "Now then, on with the introductions…"

Beginning the introductions was Chie. "I'm Chie Satonaka!" She said, shaking Astaire's hand much more forcefully than Yu did. "Thanks for earlier, by the way! I'm pretty sure I couldn't have gone on if you hadn't given me that stuff in the funky bottle."

Following on from her was Yukiko. "I'm Yukiko Amagi, " She said with a small bow.

"Yosuke Hanamura." Said an unusually deadpan, almost snarky, Yosuke.

"Name's Kanji Tatsumi. Good knowin' ya." Kanji continued, forcing a smile after having his only source of liquid snatched from him.

"And of course, you seem to know the rest of us by now." Yu finished, referring to Teddie, Rise, Naoto and himself in particular.

With that out of the way, Naoto retrieved the pen from behind her ear once more as she took out her notepad. "Now then, if you all don't mind, I would like to ask Astaire-san some questions. Is that acceptable?" She asked, pointing towards Astaire with the end of her pen upon finishing her sentence.

The knight shifted in his seat, looking quite uncomfortable as he did so. His eyes scanned around him, looking at everyone's gazes as they met his. He gulped before finally replying. "If I may, why are you all so set on me? Why are your questions required in the first place?"

"We have dealt with many oddities over the last year or so. Teddie himself was much like you, in that he couldn't remember who he was up until a certain point." Naoto explained. "...However, coming from another world is one thing, but a different dimension is something else entirely. It's unheard of beyond works of science fiction."

Astaire rubbed his chin as he pondered this. "...I suppose I can understand that. There are things in this world which are remarkably foreign to me as well." He sat forward and rested his arms on the table. "Very well, Ms. Shirogane. Ask away."

A small smile formed on Naoto's lips as she opened up onto her first page. "First off, I would like to ask about your sword."

"You mean this one?" Astaire asked, reaching back into his bottomless box and bringing out his Zweihander, much to the astonishment of the rest of the group, bar Yosuke, who still seemed a bit distant.

"What in the…? How the hell'd you do that?!" Kanji exclaimed, his mouth practically hitting off the table.

"My sentiments exactly." Naoto nodded. "I'm not sure if you know this, but Rise-san and you both appeared on the news this morning…" Uh oh. This didn't sound good. "...where you were shown bringing out a sword an estimated 8-9 feet in length from within your coat, which couldn't have measured more than a few feet across in its own regard."

Peering into the box slightly, Yu noted, much like Rise had done, that it was completely pitch black inside it. However Astaire was retrieving his items when he couldn't even see them was a mystery. "Well… we know how you did it now, at least. Still doesn't explain how this thing works, though."

"I got it from a rather peculiar fellow who went by the name "Domhnall of Zena."" Astaire began as he quickly launched the heavy blade back where it belonged. "He always was a rather peculiar fellow, but an enchanter he was not."

"An enchanter?" Naoto queried.

"Indeed. While the Bottomless Box's origins are a little foggy, it nonetheless is powered by magic. It would surprise me if Domhnall made it, in other words."

Magic? From the way he talked about it, and brought up enchanters in a similar manner, Naoto could surmise that magic and sorcery were seemingly quite commonplace in Astaire's world. Her pencil scribbled away on the page like lightning before finally stopping. "Well, regardless of its origins, it's a very intriguing device. If you can't tell us anything about it, then I doubt we'll ever know where it came from…" she sighed, the disappointment not very well hidden in her tone. "...But since you brought it up, what other forms of magic exist in your world?"

"Miracles, Sorceries and Pyromancies. I was never a big fan of Sorceries, however. They require a scholar's mind to work to full effectiveness."

"Not the sharpest tool in the box?" Yosuke asked in a close to spiteful tone. While Astaire may have thought nothing of it, everyone else seemed to glance his way with varied expressions, mostly of confusion or surprise. While he certainly had his moments, Yosuke wasn't the type to straight up insult people. The most severe reaction could be seen from Rise, who practically bore holes into Yosuke's head with the stare she gave him.

Astaire, however, lowered his head slightly in what seemed to be embarrassment. "...To tell the truth, if something doesn't involve fighting in some form I'm generally not the person to go to." His face seemed to redden slightly. "I'm better with my hands than I am with my head…" Genuine shame seemed to leak from every word he spoke.

With a sigh, he lifted his head and changed the subject, holding out his left hand. "Pyromancy involves the conjuring of fire using a Pyromancy flame. It is a relatively simple form of magic, but nonetheless rather destructive." A small flame shone brightly in his palm, a similar yet darker shade of red when compared to Yukiko's flames. "Miracles are different in that they can take many forms. Some aren't combat-based, but I mainly prefer to use just the one form."

Before he could resume his show-and-tell, Rise grabbed his right wrist and set it down on the table. "I… don't think that's a good idea right now. It's a public place, after all." She still hadn't forgotten what happened when she was given this talk earlier.

"Anything else?"

"How many people have you killed?"

Like many of the harsher statements given today, this question was posed by Yosuke, who glared at Astaire with his arms folded tight around his chest. It wasn't hard to see that the look in his eyes was much colder than anything the rest of the investigation team had seen.

"People, eh…?" Astaire nonetheless began. "...That depends entirely upon the definition, I should think. What kind of people are you referring to?"

"Yosuke…" Yu began as he extended his hand towards his partner.

"I mean normal, everyday people. Innocent people."

"Senpai, stop it!" Demanded a very much angered Rise.

But Astaire was not to be deterred. "...If I had to guess, I would suppose the number of lives I have taken to be somewhere in the hundreds of thousands." He replied calmly. "But their innocence? That would be harder to narrow down, I'm afraid." He closed his eyes, seemingly racking his brain. "I am sure that more than one innocent soul has entered Lordran on more than one occasion. But their innocence becomes questionable after that."

There was an uncomfortable silence that swept over the group after he declared this. The investigation team had been founded in response to two connected killings, which caused disarray for more than one person and jostled their lives out of their normality. Two people dead. Compared to hundreds of thousands, it seemed like a trivial amount. Barely relevant enough to be classified as a statistic. In the history of the world, even the most notorious serial killers hadn't killed anywhere near the amount of people Astaire had.

Just as Yosuke had thought.

But the group wasn't solely comprised of Yosuke. "I don't think that question was entirely fair, Senpai." Naoto began, a serious glint in her eye. "The world Astaire-san comes from is very much different from our own. Morality and value of life can differ even in different parts of our world, never mind someone else's."

"Yeah!" Rise had been itching to say something more meaningful all this time, with Naoto presenting her an opportunity to do so. "He explained it to us before, right? People turn into monsters in that world, innocent or not!"

Everyone's eyes told similar stories. Yosuke may have been bringing up a valid point, but his approach was much more malicious than anyone had been anticipating. He acknowledged this, tutting to himself and pushing his chair out. "I'm gonna get something to eat." He said, heading for the food counter. His voice was monotone, his face deadpan.

An awkward silence followed this little episode. It couldn't have been avoided, after all. It wasn't often that members of the investigation team snapped at each other with such vigor. It was more than enough to make Astaire feel a little responsible, but he decided not to show it. He knew where he stood on this matter and he wasn't going to budge. Hollows deserved killing, however many times was required.

"...By the way, somethin's been bothering me." Kanji piped up, trying to break the silence.. "...You're a knight, right? Like castles and dragons type stuff, right?" Astaire nodded slowly, trying to catch his drift. "It's just… I never heard of a knight saying "motherfucker" before."

Oh. Right. Now he understood.

Astaire's face reddened again, approaching beetroot levels of intensity. One could only remain stoic for so long when facing their wrongdoings, after all. "Wait a second, that's right!" Rise added, happy to have something else to focus on. "You've been doing a lot of weird stuff lately, and you don't seem to know you're doing it!"

"W-what do you mean?"

"The chopsticks, the elevator, the cursing… If you really are a knight and your world is all ancient and medieval, you shouldn't know how to do any of that!"

A valid point, actually. One which Astaire had completely ignored. He had just sort of knew how to do these things right off the bat. Almost like it was natural.

"Actually... I think I might know what's going on." Yu said.

"You do, Senpai? How come?" Rise chimed in.

Sighing, Yu placed his elbows on the table. "Because the same thing happened to me."


	5. Icebreaker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An argument, a foreboding abode, and an unsettling conclusion.

While Yu Narukami was no stranger to keeping secrets, he only ever seemed to do so for very solid reasons. One could only imagine why he was keeping this one. Yu bit his lower lip, contemplating his next words very carefully. "...From what I understand, it seems that the year I spent in Inaba wasn't the only one."

Hold on, that was impossible. If Yu had been in Inaba before, then- "I've lived out the investigation several times over now."

Wait, what?

Instantly, the table went into an uproar. Questions were slung back and forth rapidly, melding into a cloud of white noise. Holding up both his hands, Yu managed to silence his friends, who quickly calmed down after seeing that they were bombarding him beyond all recognition. He pointed towards Naoto first, who already had her notebook open at the ready. "Senpai… does this mean that you knew about every single twist and turn during our time together?"

"Yes."

"The Midnight Channel, the identity of the killer…?"

"Yeah. I knew about all of it." Bad idea. Instantly the table was in an uproar again, with the noise sounding much, much angrier this time around. Yu's eyes widened in shock as his friends' scowling faces barked at him like a pack of wild animals. "Sort of! It didn't all come back to me at once!" He insisted.

Holding up his hands did nothing this time as Chie, Kanji, Naoto and Rise verbally assaulted him. Their questions ranged from a simple "Why and how?" to "Why didn't you try to stop the murders?" Astaire could do little but shift in his seat and act incredibly confused at the whole situation, considering his history with everyone didn't even measure a week's length.

The other silent party was the one to stop the whole fiasco from erupting even further. As Yu seemed to be mentally beaten down with each question that plagued him, Yukiko stood up from her chair and glared daggers at her friends. Like the stare of falcon towards a field mouse. Everybody's voices were cut off instantly, as though everyone had had their plugs pulled in unison.

"Now then…" Yukiko began, sitting down slowly. "...I'm guessing you had some reason for letting things play out, right?" As if from the flick of a switch, her eyes softened as they met Yu's face. While it went without saying for everybody else, Astaire made a mental note to not get on her bad side from there on out.

Finally having an opening to explain himself, Yu cleared his throat and straightened himself in his chair. "As I was trying to say, it didn't all hit me at once. It was…" He paused to gaze upwards and tap the table in thought. "...It was kind of like a gut feeling, or something. When I met Saki Konishi, I had this really odd sense of deja vu. It felt like everything she said and did was familiar somehow." As he recalled the details, Yu's face gradually became more sullen. He placed a hand on his opposite shoulder and glanced away uncomfortably, clutching at the fabric of his shirt. "If I'd known for certain that she'd…"

"Of course you would have." Yukiko assured him before he'd even finished. "We all know you would have, _right_?" She asked, turning to everyone else. Her inflection made it sound like a question. Her pointed smile made it seem like anything but. The team quickly nodded in unison, Astaire included. "Now that you mention it, I _did_ think it was kind of strange how quickly we saved everybody. It was like you knew where to go ahead of time!" She said as she snapped back to Yu, inexplicably taking the oppressive atmosphere with her.

"Probably because that's exactly what happened." Yu pointed out blankly, before he returned to looking sullen. "I'm sorry I never brought it up before now. I thought you'd all call me crazy."

"After a year's worth of jumpin' inside the TV and kickin' the hell outta Shadows? Who'dya think you were talkin' to?" Kanji asked incredulously.

It was certainly hard to deny that if anyone knew how much stranger truth could be than fiction, it'd be the Investigation Team. But there was a difference between jumping into other worlds and outright travelling back in time. "But man, you must be a pretty good actor, knowing what was gonna happen and never getting found out." Chie said as she stretched out her arms and legs.

Naoto cleared her throat after jotting something down in her notebook. "About that. You knew who the culprit behind the whole case was ahead of time, correct? It would've been all too easy to inform the police ahead of time, then." She asked somewhat accusingly.

This exact level of complicated explanations was the precise reason Yu hadn't brought the issue up in the first place. Chances are he never would have again, if Astaire hadn't shown up. "It wasn't that simple. Accusing him earlier wouldn't have let us get at the _true_ culprit later. For that, everyone needed their Personas." Yu explained matter-of-factly. "Plus… I thought it'd be better if everyone faced themselves again. Don't act like it didn't help you all out in the end, on top of making us as close as we are."

Well, he had them there. Their Shadows may have been tough to face, both in and out of battle, but they needed facing all the same. Thinking about the differences in everyone's lives without having gone through the ordeal was a staggering endeavour, even for Yu.

"What about Nanako-chan, then?" Rise asked with a tilt of her head. "She didn't get a Persona like the rest of us. I thought you'd have wanted to keep her safe."

She'd only meant it innocently, but the look on Yu's face let Rise know she might've needed to work on her phrasing first. "That's… We needed Namatame. Getting him in the hospital was the best way for us to question him. Even if I already knew all the answers ahead of time…" His voice was quiet, his eyes filled with hurt.

Someone needed to say something. Lighten the mood even slightly, somehow. "So… How is that similar to what's happening to Astaire-san?" Naoto astutely asked, getting Astaire to jump at the mention of his name and expertly clearing the air all at once. His eyes seemed a bit glazed over after listening to Yu's story, considering he hadn't the foggiest notion what he was on about.

"I was getting to that. But first, let me ask you guys a question. At the risk of sounding self-centred, what do you think of me?"

Wow, that _was_ a little self-indulgent. However, it had to fit into the topic at hand _somehow,_ and thus everyone decided to play along.

"You appear to be a very competent and courageous leader, if you don't mind me saying." Astaire began.

"You're super smart, but you're also really strong and stuff!" Chie remarked.

"You're also diligent and determined, as you've shown several times." Naoto added.

"Not to mention you're a real charmer, isn't that right, Yuki-chan?" Teddie teased, nudging Yukiko in the side before she tried blushing and glaring at the same time. It didn't work quite as well as the last time.

Soaking up everything with a smile on his face, Yu finally got around to the point he was making, putting his hand to his heart as he poured out its contents to his friends. "Well… I wasn't always like that. In fact, I was probably the opposite."

Yu Narukami not being a lady's man, genius, and the overall vision of awesomeness that he was today? Unthinkable. "When I first came to Inaba, I barely had the courage to ask Yukiko for her phone number, and I felt nowhere near smart enough to even attempt to talk to Naoto." He explained.

Having finally calmed her blushing, Yukiko spoke up. "Huh? But you asked me straight out when I gave it to you last year!"

Naoto seemed to be in a similar position. "Likewise, I had seen your test scores posted somewhere beforehand and if anything, I almost felt too lacking mentally to be talking to _you…_ " She said, a tinge of red seeping into her cheeks.

"Over time, I became smarter and braver, to the point where when I repeated the next cycle, I was like how I am now."

"So THAT'S how you did it! I knew no human being could eat a Mega Beef Bowl from Aiya all on the first go! It's just not possible!" Master Detective Chie deducted. She looked pretty pleased with herself, likely taking pride in the fact that she had just regained her status as the most formidable carnivore in Inaba.

Naoto pondered over Yu's story, stroking her chin as she thought. "So in other words, from your perspective, you had prior knowledge of things you shouldn't have known about." A nod of confirmation confirmed Yu's theory/explanation to be over for now. "...You may be close, but I don't think this is quite the same as what is happening to Astaire-san." She added, flicking through the pages of her notebook again.

What Yu was saying seemed to make sense, but as far as Astaire could see there was one glaring difference, that being that Yu had retained his memories of starting over from the beginning of his journey, thus keeping the information he learned fresh in his mind, at least after a certain point. However, he himself hadn't a single clue about what he had been through before being imprisoned in the Undead Asylum.

For a moment, he pondered if the depth of his knowledge on how to use every weapon he'd come across could be attributed to this perplexing temporal anomaly. Of course, that was easily attributable to said weapons having souls imbued in them from which he could draw strength, but how exactly had he come to know how to do that in the first place? The more Astaire thought about it, the curiouser he became.

Which was good, considering Naoto was about to satiate his curiosity. "This isn't a case of remembering how to do things, it's knowing how to perform actions from an entirely different culture, as well as a different time period."

"Notsomuch remembering the past as predicting the future, or something." Yu commented idly. "This is all so confusing. Are you sure you can't remember anything, Astaire-san?"

Just as he was about to say 'No,' Something held Astaire's tongue. This was exactly what his shadow had been talking about. "Actually… I think I may have something. My Shadow spoke to me last night." Everyone's eyes widened at once. Speaking to a Shadow that had already been defeated? Was that even possible? "It said something about me being affiliated with all the different covenants in Lordran, as opposed to being a Warrior of Sunlight. If what happened to Mr. Narukami is indeed happening to me…"

"Then you've not only lived one life over and over, you've been living different ones each time?! Yu said in relative disbelief.

"That seems to be what it was trying to tell me. If I truly have been a part of every covenant at some point, I can only imagine that my motivation for doing so was corrupted as well." Astaire continued, beginning to look through his bottomless box once again. "...I struggle to imagine why, or how. But if it is to be believed, I can only assume that I must've thrown my hat in with _them._ " Finally grasping on to something, he withdrew from the box a wide, thick sword, so black that it seemed to eat away any light which fell upon it. Upon sight of it, Astaire's heart sank deep into his chest. "Darkwraiths. Enemies of man."

No matter which universe you came from, anything that bore the title "Enemies of Man" generally didn't conjure up many cheery images. The once-proud Astaire seemed to visibly deflate as he realised this, his chivalric ways brought into question. "W-Well it doesn't matter now, does it?" Rise said, waving her hands frantically. "The Astaire-kun we have now is good for sure! He wouldn't have helped me out in the TV if he wasn't!"

While her belief in him could have been seen as rather touching, somebody was having none of it. "How can we be sure? From the sound of it, I think he could be anyone." Yosuke butted into the conversation, his mood seemingly having not improved over the time he'd been away. "He may not know that he was some _'enemy of man'_ in a past life, but his Shadow sure seems to." Sitting down at the table, he crossed his legs and arms as he glared at Astaire menacingly. "So somewhere deep down, he MUST know all about the things that he's done, evil or not."

Astaire's fingers tensed up around the hilt of the Darksword while his brow twitched subtly, trying not to lower in aggression. "I assure you… Yosuke, was it?" He began slowly, trying to choose his words carefully. "That my intentions are peaceful. I owe you all thanks for saving me from that other world. To pay you back with treachery and backstabbing would be unthinkable."

"Are you sure?" Yosuke raised an eyebrow. As Astaire gave him a similar look, he presented a newspaper which had been stuffed in his back pocket, laying it out in front of everyone. Turning a few (but not many,) pages in, he pointed to the large page-length article, showing Rise and Astaire's stand off with the reporters in the hall. "Because this doesn't sound very peaceful to me."

Much to his dismay, Astaire was quickly noticing that this little fiasco was coming back to bite him more times than he cared to admit. Yu slid the paper around so that he could read it himself, reading aloud for everybody to hear.

" _Acclaimed idol Rise Kujikawa startled reporters last night with the introduction of her new bodyguard. Said bodyguard, calling himself "Knight Astaire," is claimed to have nearly cut a man completely in half with the large sword he was using at the time. Reporters are said to have turned up out of the blue to interview Kujikawa, only to receive hostile threats from the bodyguard."_

It appeared that Rise and Astaire were among the few who had actually seen the full broadcast on the TV beforehand. As evidenced by the fact that everyone's eyes had slowly met Astaire's as the article progressed. Even Yu was giving him a questionable glance by now. He shrunk back into his coat, as though their gazes were pendulums waiting to release and strike him in two.

Clearing his throat, Yu continued. " _Matters were made all the more confusing when the bodyguard accompanied Kujikawa into her hotel room, never once leaving throughout the night."_ Both Rise and Astaire thought it best not to pry about how they knew that. _"Could there be more to the relationship than there seems? Is there a reason this mysterious sword-swinging man has simply shown up after being previously unseen by anyone? Only time will tell."_ Finally it finished, with the rest of the page being taken up by online messages which were posted about the story overnight. For the sake of both Rise and Astaire's sanity, Yu thought it best to conveniently leave them out of his reading.

"You nearly cut somebody in half? For wantin' to talk to Rise?" Kanji uttered, looking more awed than concerned.

Notsomuch concerned as fuming out the ears, Chie completely leapt out of her seat and slammed her hands on the table, making Yosuke very much relieved that there weren't many people about the food court right now. "Are you insane?! That's jail time just waiting to happen, you idiot!"

"It does seem very unnecessary, given the circumstances." Naoto added, much calmer and quieter than Chie, thankfully. "Such methods may be appropriate when fighting off shadows and monsters, but normal people…?"

"Normal people don't deserve to be killed for invading someone's privacy. It's certainly not a condonable act, but it's nowhere near death-penalty material." Yu also added, calm but seeming a little less at ease than he had been.

And of course to put the nail in the coffin was Yosuke. "And this won't be the only time, Rise." This particular nail being driven in with a sledgehammer. "This isn't gonna wash over like your hiatus did. If he's not nearly killing reporters, he'll be hanging around and starting these stupid boyfriend rumours!"

"Yosuke-senpai, stop it!" She pleaded, but Yosuke was on a roll now. He had upgraded from a sledgehammer to a jackhammer.

"If he sticks around, he'll only cause more trouble for you! It'll get to the point where he's going to do something stupid and the blame is gonna get placed on the both of you! He's going to ruin your whole life if you let him!"

That was it. The silence which Yosuke's rant had caused was deafening. The wind seemed to stop. The air seemed to stifle. Everyone's breaths seemed to get caught in their throats. The only person who moved at all was Kanji, whose eyes were still drawn to Astaire. If he nearly chopped someone into bits for trying to ask Rise questions, how on earth would he react to this?

But Astaire did nothing. He had long since put the Darksword back in the box and stuffed it into his coat again, now sitting with his head low and his hands clasped together. His eyes were out of sight, meaning nobody could be sure if he was ready to explode or burst into tears. He moved so little that he might as well have stopped breathing altogether.

The only person who dared to disturb the silence was Yu. "Yosuke…"

"What?!" he snapped back.

"...Don't you think you're going a little too far? The fact that nobody was hurt should be proof enough that Astaire isn't evil, after all."

Yosuke's jaw nearly hit off the table. "Are you being serious right now? You're actually sticking up for him?" He said, pointing an accusing finger in Astaire's direction. "The guy who carries around a box full of weapons who _chose_ to swing at a group of reporters? Are you out of your goddamned mind?!"

Without hesitation, Yu stepped away from his seat and punched Yosuke in the nose with a _crack._ Surprisingly, Yosuke didn't strike back. Everyone was justifiably shocked, up until Yu once again opened his mouth. "Do you remember the first and last time we disagreed like this?" The statement had been aimed more at everyone than just Yosuke. Even still, he nodded in response. "You're jumping to conclusions. Just like last time." He turned towards Astaire and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I think we should hear Astaire-san and Rise's side of the story first before we go slandering anyone."

Charismatic as ever, it seemed. Nobody could deny that Yu Narukami was a hard man to argue with. Even Yosuke, who just a few seconds ago had been read to cut someone's head off, looked sufficiently more calm after Yu's little display. The tension seemed to dissipate as everyone let out a sigh they didn't know they'd been keeping in. "...But I think that can wait for another time, don't you think? I dunno about the rest of you, but I'm tired of hearing all this explaining in one day." He added.

"Sounds like a plan to me. I need to stretch my legs anyway, I've been sittin' here for way too long." Kanji yawned, looking as though nothing had even happened. "Need to get some more Animal Crackers too. Mind if I swing by the snacks inside?"

"Now that you mention it, I think I'm in the mood for snacking as well. My budget won't cover as much steak as I'd like, and neither will Yosuke's." Chie agreed. With that, it seemed to be settled that everyone had business within Junes. A better way to clear everybody's heads there had never been.

"You didn't have to hit me, y'know, I don't mind getting' yelled at." The somewhat stuffy version of Yosuke's voice said as the speaker clutched his nose, which he was lucky not to have broken altogether.

"Dont worry," Yu said, patting his partner on the back. "I'm sure Daisuke won't mind you stealing his look for a while." He smacked a small bandage onto Yosuke's nose, soft enough to apply it correctly but hard enough for him to feel it. He cringed at the impact but the two of them laughed it off as they followed the rest of the group.

The only two who had lingered behind were Astaire and Rise. "Hey, you alright?" She asked softly. Slowly but surely, Astaire lifted his head. He looked pale and sullen, a far cry from the boisterous version who had escorted herself and Teddie through the TV World earlier. He gazed up at his protectee with deep disappointment inherent in his eyes. Not for her, but for himself. "C'mon now, don't be like that… I know it was getting a little crazy back there, but Senpai and I still believe in you!"

He sighed. "I fear their reactions are not without some kind of backing, Ms. Kujikawa. I cannot deny that my attitude towards these 'reporters' has been quite inhospitable. Not peaceful in the slightest." He raised his hand, a black-red glow enveloping them in much the same way his pyromancy flame had done before. "I have indeed been a Darkwraith at some point in the past. I can only hope that my crimes were not too severe."

It was clear that despite the… happy? Neutral? Whatever sort of ending the meeting had ended up at , Astaire was still incredibly bummed out by Yosuke's words. How fortuitous it was that he should be stuck with the one person who knew him best, then. "Astaire-kun… I'm going to go look at some stuff inside, okay?" She said as she turned on her heel and began slowly walking towards the elevators. "It'd sure be terrible if something were to happen to me if I walk off on my own…"

Within the blink of an eye, Astaire had picked himself up and was striding alongside Rise, his face calm and collected once again. "Shall we make haste then? Your friends are likely to be waiting for you." He spoke with such conviction that there was no questioning he was back to his old self. Try as she might, Rise couldn't resist smiling at how dramatic the change was.

It was quickly becoming evident to Astaire just how infectious her smile could be.

* * *

Nostalgia hit Yu in waves as he strolled through Junes with everyone. While it was true that more time was spent in the food court than anywhere else, memories of the occasional foray inside were just as welcome, if not moreso. Everyone would split off into their own sections and come back with any amount of who-could-say-what. Many things Junes may have been, but it was never boring.

The company it let him keep wasn't half bad, either. "You surprised me back there. I haven't seen you that aggressive since we apprehended the killer." Yukiko said, walking close to his side.

"It just didn't feel right, talking about Astaire-san that way. You saw how he reacted, didn't you? He looked really out of it."

"He and Rise are still at the food court, aren't they? What do you suppose is taking them so long?" Yukiko bit her lip as the possibilities flew through her head.

"Nothing dangerous, I'd imagine. If it was Yosuke he was stuck with I'd be worried, but he and Rise seem to be on pretty good terms." Yu replied calmly.

He seemed to trust Astaire pretty strongly in spite of them barely being acquainted, Yukiko noted. Whatever his reasons were, she could only surmise that he must have held them for a very good reason.

The peaceful air surrounding the two was quickly interrupted as Teddie's blue head came tumbling between them, separating them from each other before rolling to a stop. "You should have seen those two in the TV world, Sensei! It was awesome!" He said happily. "Of course, they couldn't have done it without my help, hee hee!"

While Teddie's confidence in himself was rather amusing, it did leave the question of whether Rise and Astaire could make it back on their own. Shadows didn't stay dead, after all.

Such questions could wait for later. In the meantime, Yu's ears perked up. "Hey Yu-kun, come over here!" Chie called, disappearing behind one of the aisles. Eager to see what had her so worked up, the party of three decided to follow her. Around the corner sat everyone else, admiring some of the musical instruments which were on display. Kanji tapped on some of the drums and cymbals, while Chie herself eyed up the trumpets. "Since we'll have an easier time getting everyone together, we should totally play another concert here some time!"

Admittedly the idea had crossed Yu's mind once or twice when he had arranged the meeting, but he doubted things would go that easily. Rise's agency would likely be much less forgiving of a random concert in the middle of nowhere, after all. "Hey, do you think Astaire-san plays a musical instrument?" Kanji inquired.

"I doubt it. Like he said, his talents mostly lie in the realms of combat, above all else." Answered a somewhat disappointed Naoto. Having another member in their little band _would_ have been pretty cool.

As luck would have it, they had a chance to ask the man himself. "Ooh, you guys are looking at instruments?" Rise enthused as she rounded the corner, knight in tow. "It's been awhile since we last did that concert, hasn't it?" She turned to Astaire, who was examining some of the instruments with great interest.

While he usually carried about his Zweihander wherever he went, this was one of the few times when Rise had seen him without it in public, sitting down excepted. "Pray tell Ms. Kujikawa…" He began, pressing a key on the keyboard and reeling back in surprise. "...What the devil are these things?"

This was getting beyond a joke. "Really? You've never seen a keyboard before?" An astonished Rise exclaimed. Not having played a piano or keyboard was one thing, but _never_ seeing one or knowing what they were? "In fact… have you seen any of these things before?" A shake of his head was all that was required. This was worse than Rise had thought.

Henceforth, that was the start of Naoto and Rise's crash course in piano and keyboard playing. Despite Yosuke's best efforts to restrict them from touching the equipment, they did it anyway. "Alright, so normally the fingers on your left hand go here…" Rise began, grabbing hold of Astaire's hand and placing it over the proper set of keys. Once again was lucky that she was more focused on his hands than his face. "...and here's where your right one goes!"

"The most basic song to start off with is usually "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," which goes a little bit like this." Naoto took over, showing Astaire how to move his fingers over the keys, as well as explaining some of the other basics, such as the keys on either side being low and high notes respectively.

A sort of dazed look had washed over Astaire's face in between explanations, Rise noticed. Before she could snap a finger in front of his face, he opened his mouth. "I see." He said halfheartedly, gaze distant "I think I'm beginning to get the gist of this…" He muttered.

Now in a noticing mood, Rise couldn't help but appraise Astaire's hands on the keys. Instead of positioning them the way she had told him, he seemed to be spacing out his fingers ever so slightly wider and swapping between different positions altogether, as though sizing up the device before him.

Without warning, Astaire's hands went into a frenzy. A far cry from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, his hands danced expertly up and down the keys, with motions that were all at once rapid, controlled and calculated. Needless to say, surprise was in no short supply amongst the team. Astaire's ignorance in light of not just the piano, but the instruments in general, seemed very genuine. Yet there he sat, hands approaching a blur as the tune continued.

In truth, everyone wasn't sure what was more surprising, the fact that Astaire could play the keyboard, or that he looked just as confused as they did. "This wouldn't happen to be some kind of normal, would it?" He said, quickly forcing his busy fingers to a stop as everyone sat stunned, himself included. However, if one thing could be said about the situation, it was beginning to shed some light on one of the more puzzling aspects brought up earlier.

"That's it!" Yu exclaimed to break the silence, pounding his fist into his other hand. "I know why Astaire-san's been doing such strange stuff without knowing it!"

Astaire blinked a few times before responding. Clearly he wasn't quite as perceptive as Yu was at the moment."What? You do?"

Yu nodded. "I think you _are_ remembering how to do the stuff you're doing, but not with your head." He held up his hands. "You're remembering stuff with your body. Muscle memory, in other words."

Now that he brought it up, that _did_ seem plausible. While Astaire may not have been able to remember things, there was a chance that the things he had done up until now had been things he'd done many times before. So many times that he could recall how to perform the actions without having to think about it.

Straight out with her notebook, Naoto began jotting things down again. "That would make sense, but it has one large inconsistency. If Astaire remembers eating with chopsticks, playing a keyboard and using a phone… where did he use those things to begin with?"

Crap. Straight back to the start. If there was one other thing Astaire was good at without knowing it, it was giving people headaches.

Still, better to make the most out of the situation. "Well, reasoning aside I think this is pretty good! We have another member in our band now, right?" Chie grinned.

"Yeah, but Naoto already plays the keyboard. Don't suppose you know how to use any of these other things, do ya?" Kanji asked.

Well, only one way to find out. Astaire circled the aisle, trying all the different instruments on display to see if they received any similar results. A trumpet, saxophone, drum set, guitars of every kind, just about every instrument the team used at the concert and more, but to no avail. It seemed that Astaire had at one time been a pianist, but little more than that. "In any case, this is liable to be beneficial on a few fronts. Astaire-san's playing sounds like ragtime." Naoto pointed out. "His style is much different from my own, and it might help shed some light on where he picked up the song in the first place."

"Perhaps. Either way we agreed to speculate on stuff like this later, so let's go check some more stuff out!" Rise enthused, grabbing Astaire's hand and pulling him behind her, turning the corner fast enough to almost sweep him off his feet entirely. Seeing no reason to do otherwise, the team followed suit.

* * *

"We should totally do something big again this year! We could stay over at Yukiko's place again, go to the beach, go see Nanako-chan…" Listing the items off on her fingers, Chie recited nearly every possible activity they could get up to, seeing as the restrictions which bound them from last year had been essentially lifted.

"We could even have a cook-off again!" Rise chimed in. She couldn't help but notice all the boys' faces trying to contain the fear inherent in their eyes, with the exception of Astaire, who luckily didn't know any better. "Don't worry, I've been practicing in my spare time to make sure I don't lose again!" She winked.

Yukiko was having different thoughts. "Why do the same stuff we did last year? We should find somewhere different to go sometime, to make things interesting!" The suggestion hinged on what exactly she classified as "interesting," making yet more worried faces amongst the girls.

Not that he was disagreeing with her, partly because he wasn't that stupid, Yu gave his two cents as well. "We could even head to the city for a day, if we could get Teddie and Rise to guide us there." Then again, some small part of Yu _did_ enjoy scaring the girls with his ghost stories, but he felt it'd be safer if he offered them an alternative. "I'm sure it'd be better this time since we're not going with school."

Everyone continued to talk amongst themselves, happily discussing all the endless possibilities which were laid out for them. The only exception was Astaire, whose attention was being drawn elsewhere. Much like in the city streets, he was well on guard now that they were in a more densely populated area. The aisles and shelves in Junes seemed much more intimidating with the paranoid possibility of someone hiding inside them. Keeping his hand on his sword, he scanned over everybody who passed by, looking for anyone who might have been holding their gaze on him for too long. His eyes shot back and forth, desperately trying to confirm that there was indeed danger to be found.

Unfortunately, he was in a position where even innocent people were staring at him. As Yosuke had ever-so-kindly pointed out, both he and Rise were all over the news with their little display the day before. It was hard to mistake a tall, black-haired fellow with orange eyes and a velvet trench coat. Wandering eyes glanced over and quickly glanced away again,people cupped their hands and whispered to one another. Any of them could have been planning something..

But there was one person who caught Astaire's eye. He was sitting on the end of a bench just across the room. His teeth seemed to almost force their way out of his mouth, jutting forward and giving him a permanent disagreeable look. His eyes were large, but the character squinted so heavily that they looked barely above a fraction of their original size. What struck Astaire the most was his outlandishly thick handlebar moustache. The longer Astaire looked at him, the more uneasy he felt.

"Astaire-kun, what do you think we should do?" Rise asked, grabbing his attention away from the suspicious stranger.

"Pardon?" He turned to see Rise staring back at him expectantly. Not sure how to respond, he stood there for a while trying to come up with an answer. Just to be sure, he swept back around to steal another look at the strange man, only to find that he'd up and left entirely. He sighed, mostly out of relief that he hadn't appeared behind him with a knife in his hand.

"Everything okay? You look a little out of it." She said softly. Astaire's heart leapt at the sight of her concerned look.

He shook his head and forced a smile. "I'm quite alright, Ms. Kujikawa, thank you." Letting down his guard probably wasn't the best idea right now, but if it would ease Rise's mind, he would take whatever was thrown at him in due time. He released his grip on the hilt and turned around to face the group fully. "So, what 's going on?"

"The guys need a tiebreaker. They can't seem to decide on where to go now that we're all together again…" She explained, motioning to her friends behind her.

"Oh, that's right! Apparently someone found a haunted house out in the hills not too far from here! We should totally go and check that out!" Yukiko said gleefully.

Needless to say, Chie wasn't amused. "Are you crazy?! You'll give us all heart attacks if we go somewhere like that!"

"Yeah, the ski lodge was bad enough, but that's just overkill!" Rise agreed.

However, this was different from the ski lodge. "Haunted, you say?" Astaire repeated, suddenly very interested in what was being discussed. "I don't think we can take something like this lying down. What if someone less able wandered in and was snatched away? Unthinkable!"

He grabbed the Bottomless Box and was halfway through pulling out a katana before Yu stepped in. "Woah, wait a second!" He cried, pushing the hilt back down into the box. "Don't just pull stuff like that out in here, you'll get us arrested again!"

All but Chie and Yosuke's faces were suddenly giving Yu perplexed looks, particularly Yukiko's. Yu could have sworn he heard a death knell off in the distance as he realised he might've let slip more than he necessarily should have.

Shrugging, Astaire tucked the sword away again. "If you insist. You'll need something if you're going to be slaying ghosts, though."

Slaying ghosts? Surely he was joking.

* * *

Okay, so he wasn't joking.

"This is gonna be awesome." Kanji said, weighing up the shield Astaire had lent him. "I can't believe you guys actually talked the girls into doing this."

Yu also got a feel for his weapon, the katana which Astaire had almost produced earlier. "Yukiko would have come even without us having to say anything. I'm more surprised Naoto, Chie and Rise came as well."

"I'm gonna owe Chie a cow's weight in steak after this, I know it…" Yosuke sighed, also giving the daggers Astaire had lent him a spin in his fingers. He could say what he wanted about his methods, but Astaire carried some kickass weaponry. "Why are we doing this again?"

"Well, Astaire seems to be really eager to go here. Might work well as an icebreaker, that sort of thing." Yu replied.

Teddie looked somewhat disappointed at the small set of claws Astaire had given him. He had to change back into his human form to even wear them in the first place, which then resulted in Astaire nearly lopping his head off after he showed up in a body he'd never seen before. He was still in high spirits, though. "I think this is a great idea! The girls get spooked and all of a sudden, whoosh! We come in and save the day, getting all the ladies with our manly display of manliness!"

Teddie cut off before he could plan any further as Yosuke tapped him on the forehead with the knife's grip. "Hey, don't go around scaring people just for that reason! If I have a heart attack in here i'm gonna make a rug out of you!"

He growled comically. "Groowr… you're no fun, Yosuke. No wonder you don't have a girlfriend yet!"

"Alright, that does it!" Yosuke threw down his knives and began wrestling Teddie on the ground. He wasn't going to hurt him, but he was sure as hell going to tighten his lips a bit.

Yu did nothing to stop them. If anything, Teddie's comical responses to Yosuke's wrestling was funny it and of itself. "Oh Yosuke, I'm ticklish there, stop it! Ahahah!" He cried, coaxing a snort from Yu.

Meanwhile, Astaire had been left with the girls.

"Are you absolutely, one-hundred percent, completely and utterly sure that this'll be okay?" Chie whispered, not sure who she didn't want to hear her.

"Th-there is absolutely no scientific proof whatsoever to confirm the existence of ghosts. I highly doubt we'll see anything at all." Naoto reasoned.

"There's also no scientific proof that other dimensions exist and that people can enter TVs, though. Anything could happen!" Yukiko enthused. Unfortunately, her argument was rather convincing, to the point where even Naoto paled a few shades

The only person who wasn't either scared or gleeful was Astaire, who was still acting differently for another reason. "M-Ms. Kujikawa, would you please…?" His face was flushed as Rise latched onto his arm and refused to let go. While it was true that he had been eager to go and investigate the supposedly haunted abode, something told him that if he'd foreseen this exact situation, he mightn't have bothered bringing it up.

Despite his pleas to regain her composure, Rise held firm. "No way! You said yourself that you were gonna protect me no matter what, right?" She squeezed his arm tighter as the house came into view. It was creepier than she had been anticipating, which said a lot considering she had pretty high expectations already. "Ooooh… I don't like this, Astaire-kun…"

Her uneasy tone made Astaire feel incredibly guilty. He hadn't intended for her to get this distressed. Seeing as he had to take responsibility for it, he took a breath and tried to ignore the incredibly cute girl clinging to him for dear life. He approached the boys, who had just about finished messing about. "You suit those weapons, it seems. I'm glad to know I'll have someone to rely on in here." He said, fishing about in his coat with his free arm.

Yosuke's eyes narrowed as he saw Rise clinging to Astaire. _Any wonder he'd been so enthusiastic to come here_ , he thought. Then again, considering everyone's reactions earlier, now probably wasn't the best time to harass him for it. "So, what? You expect us to go in here and stab up some ghosts like it's nothing?" He said instead.

The response was issued in the form of something slicing through the air with a sound both sharp and deadly. From the bottomless box, Astaire had produced an ornately crafted black greatsword. The blade shone brightly and was much shorter than the one the knight usually carried with him, which was boggling to think, considering _it was still a greatsword._ "If it should come to that, yes. Now then, would you like to lead the pack, Mr. Narukami?"

Yosuke's earlier question being ignored in favour of the later one, Yu nodded and walked up to the front porch of the massive house. The wood under his feet creaked at the touch, sounding on the verge of breaking, likely due to the age. It struck Yu as rather odd that such a creepy-looking house had went unnoticed if it was as old as it was. It didn't even look remotely Japanese, bearing more resemblance to Victorian manors he'd seen in history books. Brushing these concerns aside, Yu pushed on the door, letting the loud creak echo throughout the house.

"Well… let's go, everyone." He said, taking the first few steps inside. Hot on his heels were Kanji, Teddie, Yukiko and Astaire, the only ones looking forward to this little excursion. Rise was brought along by extension, her grip on Astaire's arm so tight that she threatened to have it fall off him altogether. Once again, Chie and Naoto didn't want to be left behind, throwing themselves into the darkness which lay within.

Holy crap it was dark. If the boys hadn't thought to bring flashlights along with them, chances were nobody would have taken a single step further. Even then, the girls considered that perhaps seeing what was lying around inside the house wasn't the best idea either. Even with the light shining on it, everything was covered in black. It looked like a fire had struck through the building at some point, inexplicably charring every surface, but not burning them away entirely.

Not only that, but the house couldn't seem to settle on how quiet it was. At times the sounds of footsteps and creaking wood filled the air, soon to be overthrown by the entire house seeming to shudder as though it were alive. Finally it would die down, returning to its quieter state.

By that point, nerves were getting wracked. "A-Astaire-k-kun…" Rise squeaked, looking all around her in fright. "...Are you s-sure nothing'll h-happen in here? You wouldn't let it, right?"

"Of course not. This isn't the first time I've done this, you know."

Wait just a freaking minute.

"You… You what?" Naoto asked on behalf of everyone present.

"Fought ghosts. They're sneaky buggers, that's for sure." He said calmly as could be.

Perhaps that wasn't the best idea, as Chie soon demonstrated by latching onto his collar. "Are you telling me that ghosts are actually real in your world?! You're kidding, right?!"

"Not at all. You see…" Astaire began, lowering his voice. "...A long time ago, there was a city called New Londo. It was a city governed by four mighty kings." Yukiko by this point was all ears, and admittedly so were a few of the guys as well. "But one day, the kings became corrupted at the hands of the Darkwraiths, given the ability to suck someone's humanity out of their body with their bare hands."

"Astaire-san, you don't need to-"

"So, action was taken to seal away both the kings and the Darkwraiths who had blackened their hearts so. New Londo was flooded." His orange eyes didn't stray from the darker parts of the rooms, keeping check for anything out of place. "However… that wasn't all that was sealed away. People lived in New Londo after all. To this day, it is their spirits that now haunt the flooded ruins, the rattling of chains and the swishing of ghostly blades a testament to their presence." He finished, sounding a bit more sinister than he had intended.

Once again evidenced by Chie. _"AAAAAAAAAAAAH! I'M GETTING THE HELL OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!"_ She cried, running back the way they had come without a flashlight.

Obviously, someone with a flashlight would have to accompany her. "Chie, hold on a second! Get back here!" A concerned Yosuke called, rushing after her and depriving everyone from another source of light.

Running between everyone, Yu followed in Yosuke's footsteps, stopping only to turn to everybody else. "Let's go, guys. I don't want anybody getting lost in here." He said, turning on a heel and chasing after his friends afterwards. Once again Yu Narukami had proved himself to be a man who was hard to argue with. The pitch black floorboards squeaked and creaked as Teddie, Kanji, Naoto, Rise, Astaire and Yukiko followed suit. They comprised the majority of the group, but without their leader they felt that the loss of three members was much, much heavier than it seemed at a glance.

Following the dull light of Yu's flashlight became increasingly difficult. He was a surprisingly fast runner, and the labyrinthine construction of the building didn't help at all. There was no questioning that they were well beyond finding the entrance now. In fact, it left everyone wondering where the hell Chie was running to in the first place. Surely she'd tire herself out eventually, right?

"Hah… hah… Has anyone noticed…" Naoto panted, "How long we've been running for…?" Now that she mentioned it, nobody had really been paying attention. All focus was directed towards the pursuit above all else. It would only take so long for them to catch up to Yu after he caught up to Chie and Yosuke, after all. "I could be wrong… hah… but I think we've… overstepped the bounds of the house by now!"

In light of this, everyone stopped. "What the hell…?" Kanji could be heard saying. His attention was directed towards the far end of the corridor. The flashlight's dull radiated glow, which had been their main marker until now, had stopped. Had Yu finally ceased running? Had he overheard them and stopped as well? Kanji rounded the corner to find out. The light remained, but its source couldn't be seen. "A… ghost light?"

"Ghost light? Yukiko-senpai, do you know-" Naoto began, turning behind her to talk to the expert on all things ghostly, only to find that both she and her blonde-haired companion had, for lack of a better word, vanished. Her words caught in her throat as the realisation hit her. "Wh-what?! Where are Yukiko-senpai and Teddie?!" She exclaimed, unable to contain her uncharacteristic panic.

Seeing as it was the only proper thing to do, Kanji manned up and placed a hand on her arm. She leapt slightly at the touch, the combination of fear and confusion becoming readily apparent in her eyes. "Look, I don't know what's goin' on here, but we're sure as hell gonna find out." He said with an affirmative nod, clutching her arm tightly in the hopes it'd hide the shaking in his own. "We ain't leavin' here until we find out where our senpai have gone to. Just need to calm the hell down and think, a'ight?" He reassured everyone.

Rise's eyes met Astaire's. "I don't want to stay here, Astaire-kun… This is too much…" She whispered, still burying herself in his arm.

That was until said arm freed itself from her grasp and instead wrapped itself around _her._ She squeaked in surprise as she felt Astaire tense around her and hold her more closely to his side, forcing her to look up. His eyes were stern, but it was a look of guilt more than seriousness. "Please, be calm. I agree with Mr. Tatsumi. We mustn't lose our heads over all this." As if on cue, the house seemed to shake as something from higher up had crashed into the floor above. Rise felt Astaire's grip on her tighten as his head jolted around rapidly in every direction. For someone who was talking about not losing their heads, he was certainly jumpy.

"This is clearly the work of ghosts. They have to be hiding somewhere!" Astaire shouted, suddenly crashing his sword through the nearest wall. The wood gave way instantly, revealing yet more inky blackness on the other side.

"Woah, woah! What was that about tryna' stay calm again?!"

"Hiding in the walls won't save you now, damned spirits!" Astaire bellowed as he continued assaulting the walls. As he prepared for another swing, his arm came to a standstill as Kanji latched firmly onto his wrist.

Oddly enough in spite of how strong he was, Astaire couldn't seem to pull against him. "Cut that crap out, you'll drop the whole damn house on us! The wood looks burnt enough as is, no need to make it any weaker!"

"Actually Kanji-kun… something's been bothering me about that." Naoto said, kneeling down and running her fingers over the pitch black wood at their feet. "This wood does indeed look charred, but it is _not_ burnt in any way." She gently jumped on the wood, which creaked in response. "I would guess that if it were, we would all have fallen through it a long time ago."

Rise bit her lip as she watched Naoto at work. Whatever was going on around them, it wasn't boding well. "We should try and find the others before anything else, okay?" She spoke softly as she stared up into Astaire's eyes.

How could he say no to a face like that? "Of course, Ms. Kujikawa." He replied, returning the sword to his shoulder. "On my honour, we shan't leave here without finding your friends first."

Taking the lead, he walked off with Rise under his arm, trusting Naoto and Kanji to defend his blind side.

* * *

"Chie! Yosuke! Wait up!" Yu cried as he dashed through the twisting corridors at a rate of 'd been running so long that we was beginning to wonder just how fast Chie and Yosuke were in the first place. He was bound to have seen at least some trace of them by now. _"Damnit, where could they have gone?"_ He wondered, slowing down and finally stopping to catch his breath.

Hands on his hips and facing the floor, Yu wiped the thin layer of sweat which had formed on his brow, only then realising how far he had run. Sort of. "There can't be that many places to hide, can there?" He asked his followers, who… had disappeared. Too tired to react beyond gasping and widening his eyes, he scanned the hallway around him to see if they were doing this on purpose. "Huh. Seems I spoke too soon…" Guess not.

As he stood regaining his stamina and almost wishing for some of the bitter-tasting herbs Astaire had produced, Yu resorted to the only sense which would serve him the most in here. As his breathing became lighter, he listened carefully to the sounds the house was making, trying to pick up on anything which might give away where his friends were.

A single, drawn out creak emerged from around the corner to his right. Seeing as he was already lost and he doubted that was going to change soon, he ventured around the corner, trying to deduce if anything was actually causing the noise or if the house was just settling. Finally, after minutes of nothing but endless corridors, he came to something different for a change. A door. _"Well, I guess it couldn't be anything worse than another corridor."_ He reasoned, grasping the doorknob and tugging firmly.

...Except the door didn't budge. It was locked. Pushing against it did nothing, not even when Yu tried to beat it down with his shoulder. Just as he was about to give up, he came to a decision. _"...Well, it's not like anyone's living here anyway…"_ He once again reasoned as he unsheathed the katana Astaire had given him. With one fell swoop, the sword cut through the door with ease, separating the two halves with a single clean horizontal cut.

Satisfied with his swordplay, Yu once again approached the door and lightly pushed the top half away. With an earth-shatteringly loud thump, he was finally able to see what awaited on the other side.

" _YU-KUN!"_ Clearing the bottom half of the door with inches to spare, Yukiko dove into Yu's arms with speed unseen by man, the momentum forcing them both to the ground. Temporarily stunned and surprised by her appearance, Yu could do little beyond stare into Yukiko's eyes as he registered what had just happened. She could barely contain her laughter as she rolled off of Yu and clutched her stomach in fits of laughter. "You...you should have seen…" she gasped, tears in her eyes. "...should have seen the look on your face! Hahahaha!"

"Well at least one of us is having fun." Yu chuckled, his chest feeling much lighter that it had been earlier. That is, until he took note that Yukiko was the _only_ person who had greeted him. She was on her own. "Huh…? Yukiko, did you get separated from everyone else too?"

Able to answer after finally calming down, Yukiko wiped her eyes as she got onto her knees. "Well not everyone, Teddie came along with…" She began as she looked behind her, expecting to see the flamboyantly dressed young man chasing after her. Much to her surprise however, he was nowhere to be seen. "...That's odd… I could have sworn I ran down here with him…"

Getting to his feet, Yu offered her a hand. "Something's definitely wrong with this place, that much is certain." As he hoisted Yukiko to her feet, he sheathed the katana and grasped her hand with both of his. "Whatever you do, don't let go of my hand, okay? I don't want to lose you again."

Without another word, Yukiko did indeed grasp his hand firmly. Time to get serious. Yu once again drew his sword, leading the way with his means of defense in one hand and his girlfriend in the other. As he turned away from her, Yukiko bit her tongue before she began swooning over just how cool he was when he put his mind to it.

* * *

Two bodies tiptoed their way down the hallway, their only source of light unsteady and unsure of what it was focusing on. "Would you cut that out?! I can't hold this thing steady with you going crazy like this!" Yosuke warned, prodding Chie with his free hand.

Despite her usual avoidance of similar awkward situations, Chie had found herself latching onto Yosuke for dear life, her arms attempting to stop her legs from carrying her further into this hellhole. "I can't help it, I swear! My legs are shaking on their own!" She insisted.

Yosuke sighed. "I don't understand what you're so scared about anyway, nothing's going to show up here! Do you think Yu would have brought us here if-"

His sentence was cut short by a loud crashing sound in the distance. It was far away enough to not be a threat, but it _was_ close enough to be stupidly terrifying. _"AAHWHATTHEHELLWASTHAT?!"_ Chie screamed in Yosuke's ear, leaving him surprised that he hadn't been deafened altogether. Truth be told the sound had made him jump as well, but he was more terrified by how tightly Chie was clinging onto him. Honestly, it would have been pretty cool to have a girl clinging to him in a haunted house, if hadn't been one who could snap him in half.

"Stop it, Chie…! I'm gonna collapse…!" He wheezed out as he felt his spine scream at him in agony. Not wanting to destroy him completely beyond repair, Chie did eventually relinquish her grip, leaving him gasping for air as he made sure he was still in one piece. "Look…" he sighed. "As long as nothing explicitly jumps out and tries to kill us, I think we're going to be fine."

Wiping her eyes, Chie looked up at Yosuke and nodded softly. "I guess you're right…" She sniffed. To his surprise, she almost looked kind of… cute. It wasn't a side of herself she showed often. but maybe she should have. Or not, considering Yosuke then felt like more of an asshole because of it. "Just… don't run away and leave me, okay? I don't wanna be left alone in here again…"

"Says the one who ran off on her own in the first place." Yosuke teased. He regretted doing so the moment Chie's elbow forced its way into his ribcage, leaving him to laugh through hastily drawn breaths.

Now walking alongside one another with less trauma being inflicted, the two resumed their trek down the hallway, with Yosuke occasionally taking his focus off the floor in front of them and instead scanning the walls and ceilings. "What was that about not being to hold that thing steady?" Chie said indignantly.

With a sigh, Yosuke did indeed resume highlighting the floor in front of them. "Have you noticed yet? There aren't any light switches in here."

"No switches…? Of course there aren't, there aren't even any lights in here!"

"Isn't that weird, though? A hallway this long doesn't have even a single light?" ...Now that he mentioned it, the hallway had not only seemed impossibly long, but it appeared to be unnaturally empty as well. "I mean come on, there aren't even any pictures or portraits or tables or anything! Who designs a house like this in the first place?" Yosuke complained as they rounded yet _another_ featureless corridor.

However, there was something different about said corridor. It had windows on the right hand side, yet from the look of them it was easy to tell that what was fading in from outside was… "Moonlight?" Chie whipped out her phone to check the time. "4:50PM. There's no way it could be that dark already, not at this time of the year."

"Maybe it's just looking out onto something weird. C'mon, let's go take a look." But as Yosuke made his way to take a gander, he could see Chie wasn't quite as enthusiastic as he was. Which said a lot considering how enthused Yosuke was in the first place. "...Really? It's a freaking window, Chie." He sighed, juggling worry and frustration about as well as he juggled anything else. "Look, if it makes you feel any better I'll go check it out first, okay?" Not awaiting a response, he turned and approached the only source of natural light they had. What he saw was… well, nothing. Bizarrely, in spite of the moonlight soaking in through the window Yosuke could see nothing but pure, inky blackness on the other side of the window. "What the hell…?"

It wasn't a thought Yosuke liked entertaining, but maybe, just maybe, the house was driving them insane. Not one single thing inside it had made a lick of sense so far. Not the corridors, not the windows, not one damn thing. What other explanation was there? They weren't inside the TV World, so the regular entourage of weird crap they were used to didn't apply. How else could he rationalise it?

Yosuke's thoughts ground to a halt as something began to happen on the other side of the window. Thin, wispy streaks of light materialised from nowhere and began coalescing into two small orbs of intense yellow light. "Yosuke? What's wrong?" Chie asked with a shake of Yosuke's shoulder. The expression on his face shifted as confusion began to give way to anxiety.

The wisps of light ceased as the orbs took on their full forms. From somewhere within their depths, a pair of tiny black spots emerged from their centers. Like a pair of eyes. They stared at Yosuke, until a low, smug voice filled his ears. "...Guess who?"

Worse yet, it was Yosuke's voice they were speaking in.

That was it. Deciding to humour Chie's previous plan, Yosuke bolted from the window and grabbed her hand as he tore off down the hallway at full throttle. _"WE HAVE TO GO RIGHT NOW! I'LL DIG MY WAY OUT OF HERE IF I HAVE TO!"_ He yelled as he nearly lifted Chie entirely off her feet.

Despite being unopposed to the idea of getting the hell out of dodge, Chie nonetheless tilted her head quizzically mid-sprint. "What's the matter with you?! What was outside the window?! Was somebody following us or something?!"

"Did someone squeeze you from behind when nobody was looking?!" Shouted a third voice.

...Wait a minute.

Leaping out of their respective skins, Yosuke and Chie grabbed onto one another as they rolled to a stop on the floor, the shock of the third voice throwing them for a loop that threw them to the floor in turn. Someone had been following them. Taunting them. Who could say as for how long? All that mattered was that they'd shown themselves, meaning-

"Oh come on Yosuke, not you too!" Oh god. That voice. It could only have been one thing.

"Teddie!" Bellowed Yosuke as he caught a good glimpse of the blonde-haired young man standing in front of him, arms crossed and lips pouted. It took every decent fibre in his body to resist the urge to go and pull out his stuffing, human body be damned.

Ignoring the hellfire brewing in Yosuke's eyes, Teddie continued. "I swear, everybody's getting all lovey-dovey with each other when I'm not looking! It's a conspiracy, it must be!" He whined, stomping a foot over-dramatically. "Maybe I'll go find a cute girl myself and go make out with her when everyone's not looking, and then we'll-"

But his soon-to-be rant was cut short as Chie clawed at his shoulders and practically shook the stuffing out of him. "You stupid bear! Why did you sneak up on us like that?!"

"And who are you calling lovey-dovey?!" Yosuke added, lifting himself up off the floor.

Just about able to answer, Teddie tried not to throw up as Chie continued to try and give him whiplash. "Aaaaaagh! Stop it Chie-chan, you're hurting me!" He came to an immediate stop, but she refused to let go of his shoulders. "I-I tried calling out to you two, but you wouldn't turn around, but then you started running so I had to chase after you!"

Lovey-dovey notions discarded, Chie released her dragon's grip on Teddie's shoulders. "We didn't hear you…? But where were you running from in the the first place?" Chie rightfully pointed out. "We were in a completely straight corridor that lead to a corner, but we never saw you the entire time!"

Teddie cocked his head as she explained, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Eh? But the path went off in three different ways, wouldn't there have been two corners?"

The three looked back and forth between one another, each now as confused as the other. There was no other way about it, the corridor Yosuke and Chie had run down had most certainly had but a single corner, so how did it fit with what Teddie was saying? There had to be a mistake somewhere. "Only one thing to do now. We need to re-trace our steps and see what's going on here." Yosuke concluded, taking hold of the two knives Astaire had given him earlier. "We'll find out what's going on here if it takes all night!"

"What?! Forget that, I still need dinner before the day is out!" Complained Chie, still following Yosuke regardless.

"All the more reason for us to get this over with quickly, right? We'd better not waste any time." He replied, walking off down the corridor.

As he, Chie and Teddie walked, he still couldn't get the latter's words out of his head. Slowing slightly to walk next to him, he started, "Hey, what do you mean about everybody getting lovey-dovey when you're not looking?" He reflexively gulped as Chie shot him a look. "Not that we were getting lovey-dovey or anything. Totally weren't."

Teddie pouted as he recalled, clearly upset at the situation. "Hmph! I can't believe everybody was leaving me out the whole time! First Yuki-chan and Sensei, then Nao-chan and Kanji…"

Stopping him halfway, Yosuke interjected. "Wait, Naoto and Kanji aren't going out!"

Teddie continued as if he hadn't heard him. "...And now Rise-chan's got Astaire-san and Chie-chan's got you, Yosuke! Who am I supposed to fawn over now, huh?"

"And for that matter, we're not going out either!" But as much as he would have liked to be, he wasn't sure what the situation was between Rise and Astaire. He could only speculate at what they got up to by themselves. "...As for Rise, I dunno. But I'm sure she's not that stupid whatever the situation."

"You sure seem to have it out for Astaire-kun, Yosuke." Chie finally chipped in. "Lighten up a little."

"Lighten up? I think the rest of you need to _stop_ lightening up! Can't you see how dangerous he is with that fricking huge sword of his?!"

"Well yeah, swords are _meant_ to be dangerous. That doesn't mean the person carrying it is." She added. "It's like saying because some psycho decided to shoot someone in the street you suddenly don't trust Dojima-san with a gun."

This wasn't improving Yosuke's mood, evidently. "But he IS dangerous! Didn't you see how he threatened those reporters in the paper?! "

Yet Chie remained surprisingly calm in the face of it all. "Well he IS a knight after all. Haven't you ever seen those old Medieval movies where the bodyguard's all "You can't talk to the princess, go away!" and he waves his sword at them?" Shortly before the bodyguard got into an epic kung-fu fight, but Chie chose to leave that detail out.

Instead of blowing up again, Yosuke sighed. He seemed to deflate as he continued to do so. "What bothers me most isn't even him being so close to Rise." He turned, letting Chie see the hurt in his eyes. "It's that everybody's taking his side. You'd think knowing a guy for over a year would give you some grounds to trust him."

He felt a pat on his back as Chie closed the gap between them. "Look, we'll just wait and see, okay? If it turns out you're right, then I'll owe YOU the steak for once." She held her other hand out towards Yosuke's. "Deal?"

She was glad to see that her handshake was accepted if nothing else. Indeed, Yosuke _did_ seem to lighten up after her reassurances. In fact, the atmosphere in the corridor overall seemed to be much better than it had been for a while.

"...Are you sure you two aren't dating behind my back?" Teddie asked, ruining the moment completely.

* * *

Five minutes later, things weren't looking a great deal better than they had been. "I don't think it took us this long to reach the end of the hallway last time. Something's not right." Chie pointed out.

"You're right about that." Spinning his knives eagerly, Yosuke gazed around the featureless hall for the umpteenth time. "The question is exactly _what's_ not right. If we figure that out then we might have a chance of fighting it."

While the other two were on high alert, Teddie was now slumped over, his days of topsicle binging coming back to haunt him. "What if somebody's following us, Yosuke? You didn't catch me running up to you earlier…"

...Actually, now that Teddie pointed it out, that sounded plausible. The longer Yosuke mulled it over, the more uneasy he felt. Just to make sure, he flipped on a heel and began walking backwards as he gazed towards the stretch of corridor they'd come down. Lacking any external light beyond his flashlight, darkness loomed behind them the further they walked.

Yosuke began sensing a strange feeling the longer he gazed into the dark. It wasn't fear, at any rate. As long as those two yellow orbs stayed far away, he was cool with it. No, this was different. It was more of a gut feeling, an urge which was tempting him to take some sort of action.

His footsteps stopped resonating around the hallway, which caused Teddie and Chie to stop in turn. "Hm? What's up, Yosuke?" Chie asked. She didn't get a response. Instead, she noticed that Yosuke had ceased twirling his knives around in his fingers and had grasped them firmly. Without warning, he struck like lightning as he threw one of the knives into the darkness in front of him, despite there being nothing there.

Yet there was something. A very loud, definite "thunk" as the knife embedded in something. Something wooden, from the sounds of it. Not wasting time, the three friends ran in the direction of the knife. The tension rose like a room filling with water, with everybody having no idea as to _what_ they were meeting, only knowing that there most certainly was something to meet.

Everyone's eyes widened as they came to their destination. It was suddenly all too clear what Yosuke's knife had embedded itself into.

A dead end.

A solid wooden wall. One which hadn't been there earlier. "What the hell…? We came this way, right? I mean, there's no other way to go!" A suddenly very frantic Chie exclaimed.

Teddie wasn't doing much better. _"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WHAT'S GOING OOOOOOOOOOON?!"_ He squealed, forcing Chie to cover his mouth so as not to freak her out any more than he already was.

The wood split as Yosuke retrieved the knife from the wall, staring at the indentation before looking in every other direction. "I know what's going on now. I know what's wrong with this place."

"It's keeping us lost. It's rearranging itself to keep us trapped here."


	6. What Lies Beneath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A heightening dread, a unifying phenomenon, and Dark.

Of all the things one could be afraid of in Lordran, one could scarcely afford to remain afraid of the environment for too long. Not that there wasn't ample reason to _be_ afraid of it, moreso that if one _were_ to fear it, they'd find themselves going Hollow before even leaving the Undead Asylum.

Thus, it was hardly a stretch for Astaire to say that he had something of a thick hide for intimidating places. After traversing precarious cliffs accosted by drakes, invisible pathways, and roof-bound support beams that were barely wide enough to support him while _also_ dodging a flurry of throwing knives _and_ killing the dastards tossing them, very little could give Astaire pause.

Then he accompanied everyone to the haunted house.

Earlier on, it hadn't sounded much dissimilar to New Londo, hence why he'd brought it up. Desolate, abandoned places with ghosts littering the innards? It was better than trudging through the sewers and getting cursed into a statue, of that there was no doubt.

Even still, Astaire could feel his heart pound heavily against his chest as he guided his three followers down the narrow hallway, greatsword in hand. He couldn't recall when exactly he'd last felt as deeply unsettled as he did, only that it hadn't been for a good long while.

Maybe it was because of the foreboding, creepy atmosphere. Maybe it was the intermittent tremors the house gave off for seemingly no reason. Maybe it was because he just _knew_ there were ghosts about and he couldn't see them. Maybe it was-

"Um. Astaire-kun? You can let go now…"

Or it might've been her. That'd do the trick.

Astaire blinked as he tore his focus from the path ahead of them, only then realising that he had wrapped his arm around Rise and had forgotten to take it away after trying to calm her down. His heart feeling barely short of absconding from his chest altogether, he immediately tried relinquishing his grip. Only to find that he was unable to.

"O-Only if you do the same." He said as he lightly tried tugging himself free of Rise's chokehold on his arm. He could only thank his lucky stars that it seemed to be dark enough to hide his ever-reddening face.

Rise's grip didn't loosen. If anything, she actually tugged him a little tighter. He glanced down at her to see why, only to notice she was hiding her eyes and smiling. "Meanie. You know I don't want to..." She said softly. "...If we lose each other in here, how will we find each other again?"

Her addition to her first statement just about stopped Astaire's heart mid-backflip. Thank the Lords that's all it was. Trying desperately to put his mind at rest and focus on the task at hand, Astaire cleared his throat. "Never fret. As sure as my sword is sharp, I shan't let either of us get lost."

That seemed to be enough for her. With a nod and a satisfied hum, Rise laid her head back into Astaire's arm.

"H-However!" Astaire abruptly resumed the moment he felt a soft, girlish cheek settle against him. "Should something approach us out of the blue, fighting it off may prove rather difficult if we're positioned as we are now! So if you'd kindly…" He trailed off as he tried to lightly tug his arm free to no avail.

"Yeah, I guess…" Rise reluctantly agreed. "Maybe we could compromise somehow! Yukiko-senpai and Teddie didn't hold on to anyone and look what happened to them!" She gave Astaire's arm a tighter squeeze and gave their surroundings a cursory glance, lest she catch sight of whatever had snatched everybody but Kanji and Naoto away from them.

...Wait just a minute. Kanji and Naoto hadn't been snatched away with everyone else. Cogs began turning in Rise's head as she came to a tantalisingly delightful realisation. There could have been only one reason they were still together.

"...Oooooh." Rise cooed. She unlatched herself from Astaire just enough to where she could turn to look behind her. So quick was she that Kanji and Naoto couldn't quite snatch their interlocked hands apart fast enough, as evidenced both by their matching looks of sheer embarrassment and Rise's coy smile, complete with waggling eyebrows.

The only difference between the two was that Kanji wasn't one to let things go undefended. "D-Donchu go wagglin' at us- I mean, me like that! 'S just easier to move about if we h-hold… y'know!" Kanji stammered out hastily, crossing his arms and looking about ready to bury himself in them. It sounded like Naoto had mumbled something in their defence as well, but under the tip of her hat with her face to the floor, it was hard to tell.

Rise's eyebrows ceased waggling and instead remained raised after Kanji had spoken. He had a point. "Looks like we've found our compromise, Astaire-kun!" She giggled as she ran her fingers down Astaire's arm and met his free hand at the bottom, entwining her fingers with his. "That should be a little easier to work with, right?"

It took Astaire a second to answer as he desperately tried fending off the heat rushing to his cheeks. Chances were that if they'd been much worse, his face could have lit up the entire corridor. He had to respond somehow, surely, but it felt as though anything he could say would clog his throat on the trip up.

"Y-Yes. Right." He managed with a cough.

His stomach felt like it was tying itself in knots as the warmth of Rise's hands bled into his own. The two now walked hands-in-hand, side-by-side. And something about that was _utterly terrifying_ to Astaire.

Wheel Skeletons? Sure.

Undead Dragons, sometimes torn in half? Absolutely.

Chaos Eaters? All tentacles and teeth and eyeballs in far too many places? Unquestionably, no problem.

Walking hand in hand with a normal girl from another world? _Gods above you must be joking._

Astaire shook his head to try and focus himself and regain his composure. Find something other than the girl at his side to focus on.

Yet as everyone marched on unhindered, it was quickly becoming apparent that there wasn't much of anything to otherwise draw attention to. The corridor stretched on endlessly, with occasional corners that simply led to more of the same infinitely extending wooden walkways. The sound of everyone's footsteps creaking the wood below them was all the sound at offer, save for Astaire's own deepening, quickening breaths.

One might think that not being assaulted by ghosts would be a good thing. Astaire would have disagreed. Knowing was always better than _not_ knowing. Ghosts were a tangible threat. Inactivity wasn't anything. Nothing to work off. Nothing to see. Nothing but the deep-set feeling of one's own harrowed anticipation that _something_ was going to happen, meaning it was only a matter of _when._

That feeling, Astaire soon found, was more terrifying than any ghost could ever hope to be.

His eyes darted from wall to wall, floor to ceiling. Any minute now. _Any minute now._

"Eek!" Rise squealed. Within a second, Astaire's greatsword was off his shoulder and pointing in the direction she was facing.

Yet there was nothing there.

"Ah!" She yelped again, facing a different direction this time. Once again, a sharp _whoosh_ had the tip of Astaire's greatsword ready to strike at… absolutely nothing. Again.

Although he'd been actively avoiding looking directly at Rise ever since she'd latched onto his arm, Astaire bit the bullet and gave her hand a squeeze to get her attention. "Are you quite alright, Ms. Kujikawa? Jumping at shadows would be ample cause for concern even in Lordran." As he spoke, a slow breeze crept over Astaire's right ear, as though somebody had breathed lightly in his ear. " _BLOODY HELL, WHAT WAS THAT?!"_ He suddenly cried, swiping at the air to his right. Like every time before it, there wasn't a thing to be seen.

Astaire and Rise looked at each other, both gradually cracking nervous smile and equally nervous laughs. Then they both reacted to the same thing.

" _AAAAAAH!"_

" _GOOD GODS ABOVE!"_

Astaire plunged his sword into the wall and tore a wide, thick gash into the wood. _"I've had it up to here with this! Where are you hiding, you abhorrent fiends?!"_ Astaire bellowed to some unseeable presence, winding up for another hit before Kanji stepped in, grabbed him by the shoulder and slapped him across the face with a loud _SMACK._

The sudden shock froze Astaire in his tracks, sword raised above his head. His momentum and balance now shot, he and Rise toppled backwards into a messy pile on the floor. "Cut that crap out!" Scolded Kanji. "You take away anymore of the walls and the whole damn place is gonna end up on top of us!"

"Kanji-kun is right." Naoto added, being careful to grip the end of Kanji's blazer when Rise was looking. "Your outbursts are completely unwarranted. There's nothing here to be afraid of."

"Me? Afraid? H-Hah! Perish the thought!" Astaire chuckled, far too highly pitched to have been anything but nervous. "It's a bad habit of mine, is all! I'm simply a tad… alert, when exploring new places, so a little jump here and there isn't _that_ odd, believe me! Nothing to fret over!" He insisted, resuming his walking down the corridor and choosing to ignore the hole he'd left in the wall.

As calm as he claimed to be, Naoto noted that Astaire made no effort to bring his sword back to his shoulder.

After a little more aimless walking, Rise couldn't ignore it any longer. The end of Astaire's sword was shaking. Considering how large his Zweihander was - so large that it made even a _greatsword_ look small - it was fair to assume that he wasn't struggling under the weight. "Hey, are you sure you're okay?"

"Perfectly. Why do you ask?" Astaire adjusted his focus to Rise, who motioned her head in the direction of his sword's quivering tip. Upon realising what he was doing, he quickly threw it back up to his shoulder. "T-That's nothing. I'm simply…" He paused, racking his brain for an excuse. "...It's the sword, you see! I'm simply anxious to put it to work, that's all!" He ended with another high-strung chuckle.

"Yo, about that. Your bigass sword from before not good enough for ghost huntin' all of a sudden?" Kanji piped up from behind.

Thank the gods, something else to talk about. "Oh, this is no ordinary sword, Mr. Tatsumi. Only an exceptionally special kind of weapon will suffice for a task such as this." Astaire began as he ran his eyes up and down the blade. "And Abysswalker Artorias' is about as special as they come."

 _Artorias._ The name hung in Rise's ear in a way only a familiar one could. "Artorias…" She mumbled, right before her eyes lit up and she snapped a finger. "That's the guy whose ring you had earlier, when we fell into the TV!"

"Correct!" Astaire said with an enthusiastic nod. "He was a peerless example to all knights such as myself, and to greatsword users aside. So admirable, so courageous and so dedicated a knight was he that he fought tooth and nail against the Abyss itself! He even went so far as to align himself with the creatures that lurked within it, that he might better his means of combatting them once and for all!"

What had started as a simple explanation ended with Astaire's eyes all but engorged in fire as he grinned from ear to ear, nigh on radiating pure energy. Rise giggled at how worked up he'd gotten. That look was one she was well familiar with, she'd seen it on enough of her fans to know it off by heart. The look of a very dedicated, very enthusiastic fanboy.

"Dude sounds like a badass." Kanji summed up nicely. "So… what, he give that sword to you himself? Ya kill him for it?"

Astaire gave him a hearty, yet partially incredulous laugh. "Oh, if only! Though it pains me to say it, even a warrior as capable as Knight Artorias wasn't invincible. Nobody quite knows for certain what happened to him, only that his onslaught against the Abyss pried him away from Lordran, never to return. His grave stands as a testament to his sacrifices, as well as a stony reminder of what all good knights should strive to be."

Astaire walked on in silent triumph for a few seconds before he realised he hadn't actually addressed Kanji's question.

"Oh! That being said, if he _were_ alive I daresay he'd make short work of us all, never mind myself! Any fellow with even a fraction of his strength would be a challenge, but him? You'd be wiser to just lay down and accept whatever comes at you!" He finished with another laugh, conveniently spared the stunned reactions of his audience.

Someone physically stronger than Astaire? Someone he thought could take them all on singlehandedly, and seemed pretty confident in assuming so?

...All the better he had a grave, then.

"So you didn't kill him for it, and you didn't get it handed to you." Kanji summarised again, coaxing a nod from Astaire. "...Then where the hell _did_ you get it?!"

"Ah, right!" Kanji pinched his nose in lieu of smacking Astaire on the side of the head. "As happenstance would have it, I wound up crossing blades with Sif, Artorias' faithful wolven companion. This blade is forged from their soul." He explained as his grin began to wane.

"Forged… from their soul?" Rise queried, cocking her head.

A grave nod resumed Astaire's now less-than-enthusiastic explanation. "Indeed. I had no alternative. Sif was guarding the Covenant of Artorias, and I wasn't getting it without a fight. Had I been able to simply borrow it and return it later…" He trailed away sadly, gaze glued to the ground. "...In any case, I made use of the noble beast's soul by having it forged into a sword of my own to make the sword I carry now, Artorias' Cursed Greatsword."

"C-Cursed?" Naoto chimed in from beside Kanji. The moment she realised her slip - and also made sure to jerk her hand from Kanji's when Rise turned around to give her one of her _looks -_ she cleared her throat and tugged her hat down. "I demand an explanation."

Astaire shrugged. "Well, Artorias' sword - the original, that is - was cursed when he entered the Abyss. A small price to pay, considering cursed weapons are the only things capable of injuring ghosts."

Hold.

The goddamn phone.

"So, wait. Does that mean that… the weapons you gave the guys… and this shield?" Kanji began to piece together in horror.

However, the Detective Prince was naturally quicker on the uptake. "All cursed weapons. Does that mean you've cursed us by extension? Surely possessing such items couldn't be without consequence." Naoto asked, taking note that Kanji held the shield at arm's length away from himself, looking perturbed.

He must've taken some kind of offense from the implication, because Astaire wheeled around on a heel, accidentally whipping Rise around with his off-hand. "I wouldn't dare!" He said, expression indignant. "No, the weapons I provided you were sourced from the remains of those who were already cursed to begin with. They carry the burden for us now."

Rise's hands suddenly tightened around Astaire's as he finished. His regret was palpable as he met her fiery, stern glare. "They came from remains? Like, dead bodies?! You looted them from dead people?!" Being so dense that he was a few pounds off devolving into a black hole, Astaire nodded slowly. "That's so disrespectful! How could you do such a thing?!"

"It was either that or die at the hands of ghosts, Ms. Kujikawa! What else was I to do, given the circumstances?"

Though Astaire was trying his damnedest not to raise his voice in his defence, Rise wasn't quite as worried. "Oh I dunno, maybe something that _isn't_ stripping dead bodies?! You already have that sword, don't you?! So why-?"

Her argument was cut short as Astaire dropped his sword, reached into his coat and pulled out something pale and white with his right hand. Everyone gasped as Naoto shone Kanji's flashlight on it, seeing as she was the only one with a free hand.

In a manner of speaking. Because a hand was exactly what Astaire was holding. A severed hand.

Rise's hands flew to her mouth as she let out an ear-bleedingly loud scream that echoed down the corridor.

"It was either that, or one of these." Astaire said grimly, tucking the hand away before the nausea in his throat climbed any higher. "Strip the bodies of the cursed, or cut them into pieces to imbue their curse upon yourself." He picked up Artorias' sword and sighed to himself. "If Lordran has taught me anything in abundance, it is that your actions are not always favourable. Nor are the outcomes that follow."

An awkward silence filled the air. If there was an appropriate response to such a revelation, none present in the corridor could settle on it.

As much as Astaire would have liked to walk on and try not to think about it, leaving without Rise wasn't an option. But after what he'd just told her, she could hardly be blamed for not wanting to-

"Astaire-kun…" Rise sighed as she grabbed onto Astaire's hand once again. "...Let's keep going, okay? We'll talk about it later…" There was no anger in her voice, but she made no effort to conceal the tone of disappointment that replaced it. Disappointment which seemed to transfer to Astaire, as though conducted through his hand. His eyes met the floor as he lowered his head in shame.

It was a necessary evil, right? He'd had to do it. New Londo would have been impossible to traverse otherwise. Rob the dead or dissect them. Those were the only options.

...But it was still a grotesque act, whether he had been given other options or not.

Astaire had never thought about it before. Lordran didn't afford one much time for introspective thinking. Now, in the emptiness of the lightless house, he could think of little else. Thinking which had led him to one conclusion.

Perhaps his callousness towards his actions said a little more about him than he cared to admit.

* * *

"Yu-kun… do you have any idea where we're going?"

"Do you?"

"Nope, not one."

"Then you're already miles ahead of me."

Yu and Yukiko proceeded hand-in-hand down the hallways, mirroring their friends in that they'd been walking for far too long in the house that was far too big. "If I'd known this place was actually going to be haunted, I'd never have brought us all here…" Yu lamented, keeping a firm grasp on his katana.

He lamented if only because _one_ of them had to be concerned. "Well I don't know about you, but I'm having a great time!" Yukiko beamed, running a finger over the wall to her left and examining it. "Look at how much dust is in here, this whole place must be ancient!"

"You'd think that, but I'm guessing otherwise." Yu said, peering cautiously over his shoulder. "I'm pretty sure there'd have been more of a uproar about an out-of-place house that's bigger on the inside if it had been here before."

Yukiko nodded thoughtfully. "Hm. I suppose you're right. If the dust is anything to go by, it'd have to have been here since… last year, maybe. Possibly even further back than that." She guessed as she placed a finger on her lips, pondering silently to herself. After a few seconds, a look of vivid, gleeful realisation appeared on her face. Yu couldn't help but gulp on reflex. "What if it's like those old ghost ships that sail out at sea? It could appear and disappear like magic, and it'd explain it being haunted!"

"I think you're having a little too much fun with this." Yu said as he shook his head. "Besides, I don't think that's quite it. Call me uninformed…" Not that anyone could be more informed than Yukiko when it came to creepy stuff, "...but I don't think a ghost ship would go out of its way to keep all of us separated like this." Once again, he felt compelled to check behind his and Yukiko's backs, though he couldn't say why. Perhaps he could chalk it up to there being so _little_ in front of them to keep an eye on.

Until they rounded a certain corner, that was. A certain corner which led to a certain wall of moonlit windows.

"Huh. This must be the edge of the house." Yukiko noted.

"It'd better be, considering how long it took us to walk to it." Yu grumbled as he made his way to the nearest window, letting Yukiko peer out the next one down.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No moon, no stars, not even any artificial light sources. Despite the light filtering through the window, it lacked any discernable source. "Strange… it's completely black outside. " Yu commented, turning to Yukiko. "I'm guessing it's the same on your end, huh?"

Yet Yukiko didn't respond. She seemed fixated on whatever was outside, which would have been fine had there been anything to fixate on in the first place. Curiosity cocking one eyebrow, Yu carefully approached her and moved his hand to touch her own. She instantly recoiled with a fearful look on her face, one which Yu had yet to see replicated beforehand. "Yu-kun… out there, I saw…" She fumbled, trying to string the words together with difficulty.

As much as Yu wanted to break his gaze away from her and look outside for himself, his limbs were stiff with apprehension. If it was enough to scare Yukiko, what chance did he stand? Even after multiple cycles, she could easily put his courage to shame.

In spite of this thought, Yu swallowed his hesitations and quickly turned to face the window, preparing himself mentally for whatever might be-

Pitch black. Empty. Nothing. The outside of the window was entirely bare.

It only occurred to Yu after he'd turned that seeing nothing might've been the only thing worse than _something._

"Yukiko… there's nothing out there. Nothing at all." Yu said quietly, mulling over the implications in his head. Either something was hiding from them, or Yukiko was seeing things. Neither bode well for either of them.

But all the same, she shook her head insistently. "N-No! I saw something, I know I did! I think…" She started, backing away and trying not to make eye contact with the window again. "I… think it was my Shadow...!"

No way. Absolutely not.

Yu gazed out the window once again, glass fogging from his breath as he assessed it carefully. Taking a step further, he placed an ear up and held his breath.

Silence. Nothingness on all fronts of observation.

And then, an idea. Yu turned to Yukiko and motioned to her to stand back. With a nod, she pressed her back against the wall behind him. "What? What are you going to do?"

"We're going to see what's out there once and for all." Yu said seriously, drawing his sword and pointing the tip at the glass.

* * *

As much as Yosuke thought about it, the situation seemed inescapable. How was anybody supposed to escape from a house that could move the exit? For all the time he'd spent massaging his temples in thought wondering ' _What would Yu do?'_ to himself, the answer was no less clear. Assuming there was an answer in the first place.

Not that Chie. pacing back and forth worriedly, and Teddie, yelling his head off, were helping much. Evidently the realisation that the house had been rearranging itself was too much for either of them to bear.

Hmm. What would Yu do? Think, Hanamura, think.

Teddie. Had to calm Teddie down first. Yosuke nodded to himself and gripped Teddie by the shoulders mid-flail, looking him eye-to-tearful-eye. "Teddie, calm down already! Hollering isn't going to get us out of here!"

"And what _is,_ Yosuke?! In case you haven't noticed, the odds aren't exactly stacked in our favour seeing as the _whole freaking house_ doesn't want us leaving!"Chie shouted in Teddie's stead, unable to completely cover up the unsteadiness in her voice, no matter how angry she sounded.

Letting go of Teddie, Yosuke untucked one of his daggers from his belt. "I don't know, but standing around yelling about it isn't gonna get us out any quicker, that's for sure." He said as he began walking off, stopping just short of Chie and holding out the hand not occupied by a dagger. "C'mon, let's get moving."

Chie hesitated, glancing between Yosuke's hand and the stern expression on his face. "This could be a trap, y'know, and we'd be walking right into it like idiots."

"I think if someone wanted us to walk into a trap, they wouldn't have taken the last half hour leading us to it. C'mon." Yosuke insisted. He smiled in satisfaction as Chie grasped his hand and began walking beside him.

Until he remembered that his fingers were easier to break than his spine and that Chie had nearly landed him in a cast once already. He bit his lip as he felt the circulation in his hand cut off under her iron-fisted grip, focusing as best he could on the continuing walk forward.

His screaming done, Teddie quickly jogged after the both of them not long after.

Five minutes later, Yosuke's concentration was almost shot. Chie waved around his flashlight aimlessly, but if she was finding anything, he wasn't taking notice. His hand was dust. It had to be, she'd held onto it for so long that it'd probably dried up into a raisin and fallen off. Was it even there? Was she even holding onto anything? Had he finally succumbed to the pain and just-

"What the… what is this?" Chie asked, snapping Yosuke back to his senses. The flashlight hovered over the leftmost wall and over the massive, roughly two meter long gash across its length. "There had better not be anything else with claws in here…"

Teddie approached the gap and easily slid the blades of his claws inside. The single slash was thicker than all his blades put together. "I don't think so. If something had claws this big, I don't think it'd fit in the hallway!" He commented, closing one eye and peering into the wooden gash. No sooner had he looked through it, he reeled back in surprise. "Yosuke, Chie-chan! There's something on the other side!"

Chie and Yosuke glanced between each other in bewilderment before quickly joining Teddie at the wall. True enough, as seen by the flashlight's glow, there was a wall beyond the hole, bearing an identical gash to theirs. Whatever had left them both must've been big. "...Hey, maybe we could make it over there!" Chie said hopefully.

"Why? It's gonna be the same as over here anyway, just with a bigger chance of having a freaking monster inside. Not to mention…" Yosuke paused, glancing down at the impenetrable veil of darkness which sat between both hallways. "...I'd wager that if we mis-step, we're probably doomed."

Just as he was found grasping for motivation, Yosuke received some in the form of a high-pitched squeak that echoed from further down the opposite hallway. A squeak which sounded familiar. "Oh crap, that sounded like Rise!" And with that, Yosuke stepped back and roughly threw his foot at the wall. "Alright Ted, help he start clearing this wall away!" He commanded. "If we're gonna jump this thing, we'd better make sure we don't screw it up!"

Considering she hadn't gotten the opportunity to kick anything the entire time, Chie was quick to lend a hand. Between the three of them - but mostly Chie - a hole began to take shape in the wall. Eventually, it was found that Teddie's claws were the only thing long enough to jab at the other wall, meaning he took on the solitary task of clearing the landing zone, pressing himself on his stomach so as not to lose his balance.

The job wasn't perfect, but it'd have to do. The gap on the other side looked about big enough to jump into with the right amount of effort, timing and athleticism. "No problem, we can make that no swear." Yosuke said with a confident nod as he stepped back. "Just watch me clear this in one go, easy peasy."

A thud to his chest put a hold on his show. "No way! Your scrawny little legs could barely kick away anything when the wall needed clearing, I'll go first!" Chie huffed, shoving Yosuke aside and kneeling down for a running start. "Besides, haven't you ever heard of ladies first?"

"I have, but Yukiko wasn't around so I figured- _OW!"_

There was a brief moment of rest as Chie pounded Yosuke into a pulp.

As his two teammates tussled, Teddie strolled along and gazed down into the inky black drop below them. He lowered himself to his chest again, peeking his head over the edge as he squinted heavily. Surely there had to be something down there, right? Nowhere just lead to _nothing._ If only he could get a little closer...

* * *

The brief discussion over the ethics of Astaire's cursed body defilement had brought at least one silver lining. It had helped distract everyone, however briefly, from how rightfully fearful they should have been.

Much like a transient curse, however, Astaire found that the distraction had begun to wear off with time.

Every time Rise glanced up to look at him, a gradual look of pure terror was chiselled ever more finely on Astaire's face. Pupils contracting, eyes wide, jaw tightly clenched, nothing about him seemed comfortable in the slightest. Even on his shoulder, his sword's shaking had intensified to the point where there was little use in hiding it, or even trying.

"...It's alright to be afraid, you know." Rise finally said to break the silence.

But once again, Astaire simply offered a nervous chuckle in return. "D-Don't be absurd! I'm not afraid in the slightest, whatever made you think otherwise?!" In fact, judging from his tone of voice, Astaire himself was probably the scariest thing in the hallway at that moment. He looked just about ready to snap completely.

That couldn't happen. If asking him and offering comfort wouldn't work, Rise decided she would simply have to try something different. "...Astaire-kun, I order you to tell me what's wrong." She demanded, squeezing his hand tighter.

There was a long, distinct silence before Astaire responded. "...I seem to have… overestimated my abilities." He began slowly, stopping to run his tongue over his lips and swallow tensely. "...This situation is not at all what I anticipated."

"Surprising. You seemed fairly at ease with the thought of combatting ghosts back in Junes." Naoto said, making sure to keep her hands well away from Kanji when Rise inevitably turned to look at her.

Until Astaire whipped around too, eyes darting maniacally around the hall. "Ghosts that I could see and hear! Ghosts that brandished rattling chains, ghosts that sliced at you and rose up from the floors and…!" He insisted, cutting himself off as he realised just how nerve-wracked he sounded. He took a deep breath through his nose. "But now? There is nothing. Nothing at all."

Kanji, too, was keeping an eye on their surroundings, albeit a bit more calmly than Astaire was. "Well, somethin's gotta be here, otherwise we'd be out the front door and gone by now."

"Exactly." Astaire quickly snapped, looking jumpier by the second. "I can feel it, I know I can! They're gazing at us with their cold, dead eyes right now! Lurking just out of sight, watching our every step and trying to drive us mad!"

"Doin' a pretty good job of it, too." Kanji said before Rise's sharpest glare could stop him.

Sighing, Astaire lowered his head. "Yosuke was right... I wanted to come here so badly and look where I've gotten us all now. Even with best intentions, I've only gone and mucked everything up." He said quietly, barely beyond a whisper.

He felt a warmth envelop his cheeks as Rise reached up and placed her hands on them, giving him a smile. "You said it yourself, right? Something about taking responsibility for your actions?" She moved one of her hands to Astaire's own, the one gripping Artorias' greatsword. "If you feel so bad about getting us into this, then we'll just have to get out of it. But we can't do that if we all sit here feeling scared and sorry, okay? Lighten up a little!" She chirped towards the end.

...Nothing. Astaire barely even moved. Upon closer inspection, Rise realised he was holding his breath. Given the way his sword hand tensed under her own, she took that as a sign that she should do the same.

Slowly, she followed his gradually shifting gaze to the floor in front of them.

They both looked at one another, Astaire raising an eyebrow and tilting his head while Rise nodded in confirmation. With that, he leapt forward to the point they had settled on and plunged his sword into the floorboards. "You'll not get away from me this time!" He said through gritted teeth.

"Oh for the love of… for the last time, that ain't gonna do nothin', we've been over this!" Kanji sighed in frustration.

"Don't be so sure! I know they're here this time, and I'm going to-!"

With a mighty heave, Astaire strained against the sword and… didn't move it an inch. His face, once screwed up in effort, fell flat before he raised an eyebrow at the sword's pommel. "Hmm. How perplexing." He gave it another tug, but to no avail. Finally, relinquishing Rise's hand and bringing both of his to the grip, Astaire grunted and strained as he threw his entire supply of strength into getting the blade free. As he doubled over and panted for air, it was clear that it wasn't to be.

Kanji let out another sigh. "See, what'd I tell ya? Probably went and got it stuck in the foundations or something. Lemme give it a try." He set his shield against the wall and brought both of his hands to the crossguard, joining Astaire as he gripped the other end. Yet even as both fellows of inhuman strength put their backs into the task, the blade remained shockingly unperturbed. Kanji and Astaire both panted and took a step back. They glanced between themselves and the sword with equally confused expressions. "Hah… Dude… what'd you do to that thing?"

Astaire wiped his brow before setting a hand back at the sword's hilt. "I'm not… too sure myself…" He panted, all the same readying up for another go. Kanji fanned his hands and stretched his fingers before also stepping in for a second try.

As Kanji went, he was stopped by a sudden, loud crashing sound.

With a sudden shift, the sword has descended even further into the floor, breaking the floorboards ever more harshly. "Well that's just great. As if this crap wasn't hard enough to get out already." Kanji winced.

"I-It wasn't me, I swear!" Astaire said insistently, waving his free hand. "The sword just-"

"Just what? Pushed itself into the floor just to make life more difficult for us?"

Naoto interrupted as she took in a sharp breath. "Not pushing. Pulling."

All three sets of eyes turned to her with equally confused expressions. As though confirming her theory, the sword responded by shifting even deeper into the floor, so violently that Astaire was lurched to his chest with it. The impact knocked the wind from his lungs, but he dared not let go of the hilt. "...What…?"

* * *

Yu's sword forced itself further into the window, forming ever larger cracks in the glass around it. "...the…?"

* * *

Yosuke and Chie shot to their feet as Teddie disappeared into the gap between the walls. "...hell?!"

Everything happened at once. As Chie and Yosuke peered over the edge of the dark expanse for any sign of Teddie, the gravity seemed to intensify in an instant. Before either could register what was happening, they were swept off their feet and into the pitch-black depths below. At the same time, Yu and Yukiko's window shattered into pieces, acting like an airlock as it violently sucked both of them out. They barely had time to grab onto one another before plummeting ever further downwards. Lastly, Astaire's sword abruptly disappeared into the floor in a cloud of noise and splinters, dragging Astaire himself down in turn. He could do little but reflexively yelp as he was torn away, his voice fading into the distance.

" _Astaire-kun!"_ Rise cried as the small blue dot was gradually swallowed by the infinite black void below them. However far Astaire was falling, it didn't look like he was stopping any time soon. Assuming he'd stop at all. Even if he did, it was unknowable whether or not he'd even survive the landing. In spite of this thought, Rise clenched her fists and made to jump into the hole after him, only to freeze momentarily as she looked to Naoto and Kanji. "C'mon, we gotta go down there after him!"

Between both of them, Kanji stammered while Naoto looked ready to break into a master's thesis about why this was a horrible idea.

"Guys! If we don't go now who knows what's gonna happen down there?!" Rise exchanged quick glances between her friends and the hole, awaiting a response that didn't come even after a few seconds. Time wasn't feeling like a luxury easily afforded, even for those few seconds. Eventually, Rise's expression hardened before she turned to the hole and drew a sharp breath, mustering her courage and tossing herself down into the void.

"...Damnit. Guess we ain't got much of a choice now." Kanji mused as he swiped up his shield and strode towards the hole. It took Naoto appearing alongside him to give him pause. "Woah, wait a sec."

She raised an eyebrow. "...Is something the matter? Besides the obvious, that is."

"Your gun ain't cursed. What're you gonna do if end up tussling with something down there?" An innocent enough question, but the pointed look Naoto gave Kanji after he'd asked it made him swiftly wish he hadn't.

Some mixture of annoyance and frustration surfaced on Naoto's face as she glanced away afterwards. "...Rise-san lacks a weapon of any sort, much less a cursed one. You said nothing of the sort to her."

Trying to explain that she wasn't exactly comparable to Rise in his eyes was only going to complicate the situation further. "Well yeah, she's gonna have Astaire-san with her."

The dark expanse at their feet suddenly became remarkably interesting to Naoto, or so Kanji gathered, since she was looking at in so fixated a manner. She lowered her head until her face disappeared behind the edge of her cap. "...You'll be there, won't you?" Before Kanji could even attempt to coax an elaboration from her, she cleared her throat loudly. "A-Anyway, I'm sure Astaire-san possesses more cursed weapons than those he handed out prior. Surely he'll have something of use. We should get going."

At that, Kanji shook his head as he hoisted his shield back up and straightened himself. "Y-Yeah, sure."

Eager to leave the simmering pot of awkwardness behind, the two hastily took the plunge into the unknown.

* * *

The Abyss.

It couldn't have been anywhere else. No earthly realm was so devoid of life and matter. As worrying a thought as it proved to be, Astaire couldn't help but come to conclusion that it must've been taking a shine to him in one way or another. Whatever reason or purpose it could've had, he couldn't say. Darkness knew neither rhyme nor reason. Any attempt to form such would only be in vain.

Of the few certainties Astaire had, something was _certainly_ pulling him sword-first into trouble. He quickly slipped the Covenant of Artorias onto his ring finger and braced for impact. As usual, his arrival was unnaturally comfortable. As his momentum eased away, so too did the draw on Artorias' greatsword. Whatever had pulled him down here, he was right where it wanted him.

…

…

Odd. Both odd and worrying, to put it lightly. Astaire turned on the spot, assessing his surroundings with an eyebrow raised. No kings, no ghosts, no bonfires, no nothing. The Abyss was completely empty. Not that it was exactly bustling at the best of times, but it certainly wasn't _quite_ so empty.

If nothing else, it made Rise's voice all the easier to hear. "Astaire-kun! Is everything alright?! _"_

Jolting his head around and up, Astaire locked onto the quickly approaching orange dot that fell from the darkness above. "Ms. Kujikawa!" He shoved his sword into his coat and broke into a sprint. "Don't worry, I've got you!"

With a well-timed leap, Astaire swept Rise out of the air and into his arms before the Abyss could swallow her whole. As before, he lightly set her on his shoulders and retrieved his sword once his hands were free. "Woah. It's this place again…" Rise said as she gazed around herself.

"So it would seem. Whyever it's here, I can't imagine it being anything other than bad news." Astaire said, shortly before his tipped his head back, meeting the bottom of Rise's chin. "Talking of which, what on earth were you doing?! Jumping into the Abyss without this-" He held up Artorias' ring, "-could have gotten you killed!"

Rise angled her face so that she looked Astaire in the eyes, albeit upside down. "What, and let you try and fight whatever pulled you down here all on your own? Are you stupid?!" She shot back.

He brushed off the _stupid_ comment, orange eyes sharpening tenfold. "I have fought the Abyss and its denizens before and I have won, I can easily do so on my own again!" He boasted, unable to resist raising his voice. "If abandoning me would have kept you safe, then by all means you should have left me!"

"I'm not gonna let you throw yourself in here just so you can risk getting turned into a Darkwraith again!"

At that, Astaire lost his response as his mouth hung open dumbly.

Thankfully, Rise continued. "...You're a good guy, you know? I don't… I don't want that to change." Her voice was barely above a whisper as she spoke. "But… there's a chance, right? I mean, it's happened before. You and I both know it has."

As much as he wished he could deny it, the Darksword and the pulsating feeling of the Dark Hand under Astaire's skin couldn't lie.

"I dunno how they did it, making you an enemy of man." Rise's eyes were suddenly filled with determination. "But they won't do it again. I won't let them, even if it means coming in here unprotected."

Words continued to fail Astaire as his heart proceeded to flounder about in his chest, gazing ever deeper into Rise's eyes.

Companionship was always a fleeting thing in Lordran. Those few people who spoke never lingered for long, skewed and twisted as time and space were. The only alternative was that of wordless, glowing, ethereal phantoms, a role which he'd more often assumed himself than made use of on his own. But again, said companionship was fleeting. Phantoms were expendable. Silent. Should one of them die, life would simply proceed as it always had, the death of another garnering nothing but indifference from all parties involved.

But not Rise. She was no phantom.

The moment stretched on for what felt like hours. As Rise's face softened, Astaire's temptation to tear his eyes away was replaced by the longing to get lost in hers. Whatever was on her mind, she didn't avert her gaze either.

That his life had a modicum of lasting value, even to one person, was a thought Astaire didn't readily want to lose.

"What… were you two doin' down here up 'til now?" Rise and Astaire both leapt in unison at the sound of Kanji's voice cutting away the silence. It seemed that he and Naoto had both landed somewhere adjacent to them at a point, both looking flustered from the fall, both having gone unnoticed until the last second and both giving them rather confused looks.

Staring deeply into one another's eyes while one sat on the other's shoulders? When imagining it from an outsider's perspective, Rise could see _exactly_ how it looked. She and Astaire's eyes widened at once as they both began shaking their heads. "W-Wait a minute, this isn't what it looks like! Really!"

Ready to strenuously deny the situation with fervor twice as ardent as Rise's, Astaire paused as he realised what he was looking at.

Naoto and Kanji. Together.

In the Abyss.

_Without the Covenant of Artorias._

...The risk was there, but he had to be certain. Closing his eyes and holding his breath, Astaire gripped either side of his ring and quickly tore it from his finger. Seconds passed. That was already longer than the Abyss would have afforded him normally. When Astaire opened his eyes, he and Rise were still very much alive, still facing a Naoto and Kanji that were only looking more confused with time.

"...Ms. Kujikawa. I don't believe this is the Abyss." He said, holding up the ring to show her.

"What?" Rise stopped mid-rant, taking the ring from Astaire and rolling it about in her palm. "But, that last time with the sword…"

Without a word, Astaire pulled out another broken sword and tossed it away. It rang out with a metallic _clang_ as it collided with the ground.

It didn't sink. Not even slightly.

Wherever they were, it _wasn't_ the Abyss. A convincing facsimile, for certain, but not the genuine article.

However, it did leave Rise with one obvious question. "So if this isn't the Abyss, what is it?" Obvious though it may have been, but it didn't make the answer any more evident. An endless, lightless, black expanse wasn't an easy thing to recreate.

As much as Astaire pondered, he couldn't make sense of it. Naoto looked to be absorbed in her thoughts in much the same manner. If the occasional, light shakes of her head were anything to go by, she wasn't having much more luck.

They needed someone smarter. Someone better informed. Someone they could bounce their theories off of together.

"Hey! You guys alright?!"

Well speak of the devil.

They were spread out in small groups, everyone having landed in slightly different places, but they were most certainly there. The Investigation Team had apparently been re-assembled, with everyone looking more or less unharmed, postures notwithstanding. Evidently some landings hadn't been as smooth as Naoto and Kanji's, given the way Yosuke tried to crack his back and more than a few people held their heads.

It was Yu who had called out to everyone, brushing himself off as he dragged himself to his feet and assisted Yukiko as he went. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I preferred the house." He passed his gaze over Yosuke, Teddie and Chie as they too righted themselves and got their bearings. "Looks like everyone got dragged down here at the same time." He noted out loud.

Before she could interject, Rise struggled to keep her balance as Astaire sprinted off in the direction of their formerly lost friends. Naoto and Kanji were quick to follow at their sides. "Yo, Senpai! We were looking all over for you guys!"

Kanji's voice beckoned Yosuke to look up after he'd had his face planted against Teddie's back post-fall. He couldn't help but furrow his brow at the sight of Rise riding atop Astaire's shoulders, her face concerned and his determined as they approached.

He rubbed the back of his head as he sat up. "Comfortable?" From some of the looks going around, he wasn't the only one questioning the situation.

"N-No, Yosuke-senpai, this isn't-!"

"I wasn't asking you, Rise."

A deep sigh was Astaire's only response as he knelt down and let Rise hop off his shoulders.

" _Calm. I must be calm."_ He thought to himself. _"He is one of Ms. Kujikawa's friends. It is not my place to dislike him. Bear with it."_ Though he had to admit, friend of Rise's or not, Yosuke was making him increasingly wary.

Thankfully, someone was willing to break the ensuing silence. "This place gives me the creeps…" Chie trembled, crossing her arms. "I remember falling, but I can't see anything above us…" She rightfully pointed out. Looking up, there wasn't even the slightest hint of _anything,_ never mind a house. It looked exactly the same as the rest of the accursed place. "How do you even build a house on top of something like this?"

Naoto's eyes widened as Chie spoke. "You can't. It's impossible." She brought her fingers to her chin as he thought. "Therefore, it would only make sense to say that the house wasn't built on nothingness, moreso that it formed underneath it after the fact." She tilted her head towards Rise and Astaire. "You both called this place 'The Abyss.' You're familiar with it, then?"

"We are. Kinda." Rise began, recounting how she and Astaire had encountered the Abyss in the TV, and had wound up peeling it away. "...But that time, it ate anything it came into contact with." She motioned over to the broken sword behind them, thoroughly uneaten. "If it's not doing it now, I'm not really sure _what_ this place is."

Teddie growled thoughtfully to himself. "Grooowr… If we're not inside the TV, I'm not really sure how we're supposed to get out of here, if it all."

The 'if at all' didn't do much to raise everybody's hopes. "Well I'm sure as hell not gonna sit here and die just because there's nothing here!" Yosuke barked, turning to Astaire. "You brought this thing here, right? You must know how to get out of it."

"How dare-!" Astaire began, quickly clamping his mouth shut before he could go any further. Calm. _Calm._ He cleared his throat, brought his sword back to his now Rise-less shoulder, and started over. "...When last I was dragged here, it was to defeat the Four Kings of New Londo. After killing them, I was presented with the way out." He gazed around at the darkness once more. "...Which would be all well and good, if we had something to fight. Whatever pulled down here, it's not being very forthcoming."

"It might've been Shadows." Yosuke suggested, noting that Chie, Yukiko and Yu were all suddenly very interested in what he had to say. "Chie and I saw one outside this window we found. Sounded just like me." He glanced towards Yu and Yukiko in particular, reading their expressions perfectly. "I'm guessing the same thing happened to you two?"

Yukiko nodded. "Yes. It didn't say anything specific, but it was definitely my voice talking to me."

"...But we're not in the TV, just like Teddie said." Rise said worriedly. "Why would we see them here?"

The questions seemed to spiral down and down, deeper into a pit of confusion and non-answers. For as many questions as they had, the Investigation Team was quickly approaching a shortage of any relevant solutions.

Or so it seemed, at first.

"Guys? The hell is that?" Kanji said, pointing into the distance towards a small splotch of colour that had seemingly passed everyone's notice by, as inexplicable as it sounded. With little else to do, everyone took off towards whatever it was Kanji had spotted. Drawing nearer, it became frighteningly obvious what exactly the object was.

It was a TV. A simple, vintage-looking TV on a set of legs, showing nothing but an endless loop of static.

Everyone exchanged glances, all seeming to ask the same thing. "We're not actually gonna jump inside that thing, are we?"

Yu's outstretched arm stopped everyone dead. "Don't touch it. Everyone stay quiet." On command, everyone held their respective breaths. "You hear that, right?"

It was distant at first, but it was there. Another sound, fading in and out between waves of static. A sound that had everyone taking a step back on instinct. A sound not to be taken lightly.

The rattling of chains was never welcome, much less so to the Investigation Team.

Suddenly, a pair of chains with large, sharp, curved blades on either end shot out of the TV, wrapping around the blade of Yu's katana. Their grip was strong, a single tug threatening to launch Yu headlong into the TV entirely. He hit the ground with a thud, quickly picking himself back up and strengthening the grip on his sword.

Yu lowered his stance as his muscles roared into action, giving his best practiced fisherman's reel and forcing the malevolent presence from beyond the screen out into the open. An ungodly wail filled the air as a length of billowing white cloth emerged from within, reeling back to reveal the red-eyed, screaming visage of the banshee proper.

For a brief moment, Yu was stunned as the banshee-like scream assaulted his ears, before it was cut off by a loud, metallic clang. Kanji had come in from the side, flattening the ghost in one fell swoop. "Huh. That wasn't so bad."

"Famous last words." Yu said, backing away from the screen.

At that, a veritable torrent of ghosts came wailing out of the screen all at once, as though someone had opened the floodgates containing them all prior. With a combined, catastrophically loud screech, the ghosts surrounded the team from every angle, forcing everyone's backs to one another.

Only on the brink of an ensuing fight did it occur, particularly to Naoto, that Astaire had only given weapons to the males of the group. She got the sense that it might've been intentional, but the time for clarification had long gone. "Astaire-san, I need a firearm or some sort!"

He gave her a questioning look, at which point a frantic Kanji took over, eyes flitting between Astaire and the ghosts. "You know, bang-bang, that sort of thing!" He motioned the actions of firing a rifle, at which point Astaire's eyes lit up.

His hand disappeared inside his coat, quickly emerging with a small package which leapt into Naoto's hands. "These are…" She was interrupted as a crossbow landed in her hands in turn, thin and light looking.

"Crossbow bolts!" Astaire confirmed.

Naoto sighed. As expected, asking for a revolver from a knight wasn't exactly an airtight plan. She quickly attached the bolts to her belt and loaded the crossbow with ease. So much ease that it almost felt like she'd done it before, oddly. "Aim steady and true, Ms. Shirogane!" A heavy thump hit her in the back from what felt like Astaire's hand. Only his fingers felt strangely limp, not to mention they impacted with a sort of… wet… sound…

Memories of the Transient Curses Astaire had displayed earlier surfaced in Naoto's mind.

Oh, _God._

Astaire turned to deliver more armaments, when a pair of blades dove into the middle of the group between their backs. " _Everyone, dodge!"_ He cried, grabbing Rise and swiftly rolling back as she yelped. At the sound of his voice, everyone dissipated as the blades blindly hacked away at nothing, recoiling to their host thereafter.

Spaced out from everyone else, Astaire singlehandedly danced around Rise, brutally slashing any ghost that dared approach them and cutting through them like butter. As he reared up for another swing, Rise cried out. "Astaire-kun, below you!" His eyes caught the target before his sword did as two ghostly blades swept up from below and gouged into his back. He roared in pain as the ghost who'd snagged him approached from the floor, only to fall victim to a well-shot bolt through the head.

"Senpai, they're coming from below us!" Naoto called as she loaded another bolt and covered Kanji's blindside.

Yu nodded and quickly diced at the pair of blades forming underneath him. His attacks came swiftly and strongly, with ghosts forming on him with devastating frequency from all sides. Just as a few would form on one side, he would sweep around and swiftly dispatch them both, carrying the momentum and switching targets seamlessly.

So transfixed was Yukiko with her boyfriend's mighty struggle that she failed to notice Chie bounding towards her until the last second, whereupon Chie roughly grabbed her hand and quickly dragged her off. "Don't just stand there doing nothing, you'll get chopped to pieces!"

But Yukiko couldn't help checking over her shoulder. "What about Yu-kun?" She asked, right as Yosuke leapt into the air in a flurry of steel and acrobatics, obliterating the ghosts surrounding Yu and landing gracefully behind him.

Oh yeah, he'd be just fine.

"Stop it already, you need to rest!" Rise insisted as Astaire continued swatting away ghosts in their throngs, with such fervor that he seemed to be ignorant of the two bleeding holes in his back.

Three ghosts disappeared in a single swipe, affording enough time for Astaire to face her properly. "Stop for even a second and they shall swarm us completely! I'll rest when they're all dead!" He yelled as he turned back into the fray, swinging with reckless abandon and carving a new hole in the ghostly horde.

Finally, the wave of ghosts began to thin out. Yu, Yosuke and Astaire panted heavily, lungs on fire after the non-stop assault.

They were all faster than himself, Astaire noted. In a normal fight his raw power would've been enough to cover him. But this was no normal fight, and he was the only one bleeding as a result.

Bleeding pretty badly, it seemed. The Ultramarine of his coat stained a dark purple as his wounds began seeping out progressively quicker. "Oh no…" Rise's stricken face upon examining his wounds didn't serve to raise his hopes. "They're deep… how are you feeling, Astaire-kun?"

Straightening his back sent a fresh wave of pain through the wound. Nevertheless, he managed a lopsided smile. "Just fine." He lied. "Loathsome blighters are stronger than I expected, that's all."

Come to think of it, there was very little about the whole excursion that Astaire _had_ expected, now that he thought about it.

The latest entry on the list of unexpected things was Chie and Yukiko nigh on bowling Astaire over entirely as the rushed towards him. "We need weapons, fast!" Chie said between breaths. "Boots and fan, chop chop!"

In seconds, Astaire tossed a pair of black, pointed high heel boots to Chie. She chose not to question why he'd been carrying them around in the first place and slipped them on. Only once she did so did she realise Astaire wasn't searching further. "A… fan?" He asked, tilting his head to one side.

"You'd better not be about to tell us you have every single type of weapon ever made in that box _except_ a fan." Chie said flatly. She let out a sigh as Astaire sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and smiled nervously. "Alright, alright. Maybe not a fan, but… c'mon, you've gotta have _something!"_

 _Something_ wasn't much to go on. Naoto's experience with projectile weapons made crossbows a natural enough jump weapon-wise, but a fan? What on earth or Lordran would equate to that?

Unfortunately, there was little time to ponder on an answer. A cry of pain came from Naoto and Kanji's direction as the former took a well-concealed blade to the ankle. On instinct, her aim had wavered as she brought her hand to the wound to try and ease the pain. In so short a time, another ghost had risen from the ground and glowered down at her, cradling what looked like a baby in its arms. Not even Naoto could hold in a scream at the sight.

"Oh shit, Naoto!" Kanji called out, smashing the ghosts accosting him and sprinting towards Naoto immediately after, shortly before Yu and Yosuke made a similar mad dash towards her in turn.

Naoto's eyes widened as crackling lightning engulfed the undead child before it hurtled towards her. It wasn't entirely clear what effect an attack like this would have without her Persona to take the brunt of it, but it seemed everyone was about to find out. Anticipating the worst, Naoto clenched her eyes shut and waited for the ensuing pain.

The pain never came. What came in its stead was a mighty booming sound, accompanied by earthquake-like tremors that seemed to violently rock the Abyss to its core. A powerful force knocked Naoto onto her back a number of feet away before she slid to a halt and finally opened her eyes. She drew a short breath as she caught sight of the disturbance's cause.

The gigantic red fist of Takeji Zaiten, Kanji's Persona, was embedded into the Abyss, not far away from where Naoto estimated she'd been pre-knockback. She whipped her head around, confirming that the TV was still right in front of their eyes. And so it was.

Kanji had just summoned his Persona outside of the TV. In the real world.

The entire team, Kanji included, fell into a stunned silence. "The hell…? We ain't in the TV World, but…" Kanji trailed off, his train of thought derailed as a high-pitched squeal came from the TV again.

There was no hyperbole in saying that the stream of spirits was thrice as dense as it had first been. However, instead of aiming directly for the team, the ghosts flew overhead and began congregating at a single spot in the distance.

As if their sheer numbers wasn't enough to give Astaire pause, their actions were. Ghosts weren't organised. Dangerous to the point of fatality, maybe, but never organised. Something was different about these wrathful spirits. Different enough to make Astaire grip his sword that much tighter, ignoring the pain in his back.

A sudden burst of light engulfed the ghosts, spurring everyone to reflexively shield their eyes. Only once the light settled and the view became clear did everyone immediately wish it hadn't. Before them stood a towering monster of tattered cloth, rattling chains and howling faces, bound together in one horrifying, floating mass of wailing and destitute souls.

Hundreds upon thousands of sword, daggers, and bladed weapons of every kind shot out of the monster and dangled towards the floor of the Abyss, each suspended by a chain wrapped around the hilt. Then, from the impenetrable darkness of the floor rose another, smaller being. Humanoid in shape, it stood up and straightened itself to face the team.

A skeletal face bearing empty sockets, complete with a ribcage adorning the torso. A being that made Astaire's blood run cold.

A Darkwraith.

The Darkwraith outstretched its arms, seeming to conduct the ethereal mass above it, as multitudinous chains wrapped around its arms from shoulder to wrist. Then, as though swinging a sword, the Darkwraith raised its arm freely and brought it down, the left half of the accumulated cloud of weapons sounding out against the floor with a loud crash. Like a puppet controlled with innumerable strings, with the Darkwraith as the puppeteer.

There was no time to lose. The Investigation Team lined up alongside one another in front of the monster. "Rise, tell us what this thing is!" Yu called, coaxing Kouzeon out of hiding from behind Rise herself. Evidently, Kanji wasn't the only one capable of evoking.

"Both that big cloud of ghosts and the thing it's holding are two separate targets! We might have to take them out individually!" She said as everyone else began to evoke in turn. "I can't see its weaknesses though… I'm not sure it even has any!"

Astaire was dumbstruck. The sight of everyone's Personas lined up and ready for battle was one to behold. The sheer scale of Takeji Zaiten. The glorious magnificence of Sumeo-Okami. The divine radiance of Izanagi-no-Okami, enough to conjure images of Lord Gwyn in his prime into Astaire's head. The combined power of everyone's true selves was so immense that it almost felt oppressive, as though the atmosphere suddenly weighed twice as much as before.

...In the face of such combined power, should he even have been taking part in the battle at all?

No, of course he should have. Astaire shook his doubts from his head and broke into a sprint towards the unfathomably large enemy before them. "I shall try and subvert the Darkwraith's control over this monster! That alone may be enough to end this!" He shouted as he went.

"Astaire-san, wait! It's too strong to handle alone!" He heard Yu call from behind. But now wasn't the time. With a bit of equipment juggling, Astaire retrieved his Zweihander and a Transient Curse from his coat, gripping the severed hand in his own. They mightn't have been his favourite method of fighting ghosts, but it was no time to be picky.

The suspended blades and weapons seemed to perk up as Astaire drew closer to them. They drew back simultaneously and lunged forward with equal timing. With an agile roll, Astaire landed on his feet and continued his sprint, blessing his coat for being as light as it was. As yet more blades struck out and bit at his heels, he danced around all of them with relative ease, quickly approaching the Darkwraith in the centre.

Unlike the cloud it was connected to, the host hadn't moved an inch. Not that it made a difference to Astaire, who once again narrowly avoided being diced to pieces before he let out a roar and buried his sword into the Darkwraith's chest. With that, the blades that'd pursued him fell limp and silent.

The Darkwraith was dead. Stupendous.

His work done, Astaire pressed a foot against the Darkwraith's body and attempted to heave his hefty sword from its chest. It gave inches, but little more. On a blade as long, inches were nothing. Astaire then brought both hands to the grip, heaving and straining all the while. Hopefully he'd not have to set his hands on the blade proper, he thought, that'd be dangerous beyond-

The sword abruptly halted mid-pull. Astaire felt his heart sink to his knees as he looked up and met the face of the Darkwraith head on, so close he swore he could see his breath on the skull. It'd stopped him. It'd simply grabbed the Zweihander and shrugged it off like it was nothing.

The chains from behind sprung to life once again, with two small daggers quickly wrapping around Astaire's ankles and wrists, lifting him into the air and away from both sword and Darkwraith. "Damn… damn, damn, damn! Let go of me this instant, damn you!" He chanted, struggling and straining against the tightly-wound chains.

His chanting soon stopped. A chain wrapped itself around the hilt of the Zweihander and retrieved it from the Darkwraith's chest. Abject terror welled up in Astaire's chest as the tip of his own sword swung around to face him.

* * *

If Rise's long-distance analysis was to be believed, and it usually was, Astaire had made it a fair ways into the midst of the monster without getting hit. With that in mind, Yu evoked guilt and worry-free. "Ziodyne!" A chorus of wails and screams cried out as the searing bolt of lightning coursed through the ghostly mass.

"Lightning's no good, Senpai! The chains are soaking most of it up!" Rise called out, brow furrowing as she assessed the ghosts' attributes under her visor. "At this rate, the only thing that's going to work are physical attacks and-" A fiery explosion filled the air with light, noise, and the sound of ghosts agonising under the molten metal that coated them following Yukiko's attack. "...That." Rise finished.

On the frontlines, Takeji Zaiten's huge swipes with his sword cleared Naoto's way through the forest of dangling weapons as she accurately decimated the ghosts above her, dropping a few chained weapons to the ground with each soaring bolt. However, just as quickly as they bit the dust, more ghosts came in to fill the holes she'd created, shortly before swiping at Naoto anew.

Chie, on the other hand, was having a much better time of things. "Yeah, take that! Get back, you lousy ghosts!" She hollered, swinging from chain to chain while assaulting the cloud of ghosts with her Persona from below. Between getting the chains tangled up as they tried to assault her at once, as well as her penchant for physical moves absolutely demolishing any ghosts she reached up above her, she marvelled at her own efficiency. "C'mon Yosuke, try to keep up!"

"How about you slow down instead?! This crap isn't easy!" Yosuke yelled back from the ground as he focused on keeping the dangling weapons away from them both. He switched between letting Takehaya Susano-o's razor winds whip the chains into large, tangled messes and slicing anything that tried to clothesline him otherwise, all the while chasing after Chie above him.

Kanji grunted in frustration as he uselessly battered the chains aside with his shield, biting back the feeling of ineptitude that came every time Yamato Sumeragi zipped past him with lightning speed, leaving a trail of broken chains and weapons in their wake. "Argh, damnit! Can't break these damn things at all!"

He turned as he heard a call from behind him. "Kanji, switch with me!" Yu ran alongside Izanagi-No-Okami, both of them taking wide swings with their respective weapons and completely clearing the blades from Kanji's surroundings. "Keep Yukiko safe, I'll take care of these things!"

Hesitation gripped Kanji, even in the wake of Senpai's orders. Naoto was there too. He couldn't just run off whenever he wanted. Only when he turned to her on instinct and saw Takeji Zaiten wrenching blades away from her back, just before Yamato Sumeragi and destroyed them, did he feel at ease.

She'd be alright. Takeji Zaiten could stay behind and help out, his shield would be more than enough to keep Yukiko safe. His thoughts sorted, Kanji took off to meet with her and Rise, post hate.

The only other member of the party who'd taken off on their own was Teddie, who was silently thankful he hadn't taken his suit with him. It'd have taken him (Meaning Yosuke,) forever to fix it if it got diced up. As it turned out, freezing the weapons in place with large blocks of ice and having them drop to the floor was very effective, meaning his pursuit of Chie was actually pretty leisurely, save for freezing any blades which had escaped a Garudyne.

Large clearings were beginning to form as a result of their efforts, but something nagged at the back of Teddie's mind as he gazed through them. Looking back towards Naoto and Sensei, they were fending off _way_ more weapons than he could see through the clearings. Almost as though every blade they destroyed simply moved somewhere else once 'destroyed.'

Looking at it that way, it didn't seem like they were doing much of anything.

They must've been doing something wrong, but what? The only targets were the big ball of ghosts and the guy in the center. He and everyone else were dealing with one, and Astaire had run off to deal with the other. So what was the issue?

...Actually, now that it crossed his mind, he'd seen everybody _except_ Astaire within the past few minutes. How far away could the center have been?

* * *

Rise swallowed silently as she tried her best to keep an eye on her friends through the dense cloud of separate entities above her. Try as she might, it only felt like it was getting harder.

Still, Senpai was there too. He'd never let anything happen to anyone, right? Absolutely not.

"Rise! Wake up, will ya?" She shook her head as her senses returned, alerting her that Kanji was turned to her. "How many of these damn ghosts are there? We've been at this forever!"

She was silent for a second as Kouzeon scanned anew. "...If we've made progress, we haven't made much." She lamented. She didn't have an exact number, but their onslaught hadn't done much in the way of thinning the wrathful horde. "Argh! It's be easier to tell if they weren't all bunched up, I can't see anything!"

Mid-complaint, something caught her eye on Kouzeon's radar.

Whatever the anomalous blip was, it was shooting out from the center. Towards Yu and Naoto. Quickly. "Ah! Senpai, watch yourself! Something's coming your way!" She called out, just before the blip cleared the cloud entirely, heading instead towards Kanji, Yukiko and herself.

Rise lifted Kouzeon's visor momentarily, just in time to see a blue blur crash into the ground several meters away, before skipping rhythmically to a stop like a stone thrown across a pond. Judging from the shape, colour and state it was in, identifying it was sickeningly easy.

It was Astaire, lying on his right side with his Zweihander horrifically lodged in his left. Rise couldn't find a scream high or loud enough to react with, instead opting for a stunned, terrified silence. "Holy shit…" Kanji covered his mouth as blood continuously seeped from the wound and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air.

His eyes were glassy. His mouth was ajar. Every breath he took sent a twitch around his entire body, as the half of his blade's width under his skin seared and scorching him when he moved even slightly. The blackened skin around the metal stood testament to exactly how bad a condition he was in. "How… How are you feeling?" Yukiko dared to ask as she did her best to steady her voice and dry her eyes as she knelt down.

No point in lying this time. "...Bad." Astaire winced. "...But alive." As he forced the words out, he slowly moved a hand to the blade of his sword, wincing on contact with it. "Help me… remove this…"

At that, Rise finally spoke up. "Are you crazy?! You can't just take it out because it'll bleed more and then you'll lose more blood and you could pass out and you could go into shock and something might be broken and you'd…!" She trailed off, finally running out of breath as her panic came rushing out all at once. She could hold back her sobbing, but not the tears that accompanied them, as she took knelt at Astaire's side. "...Don't hurt yourself more than you already have… Please…"

As her tears beaded on the ground, Astaire's hand brushed against hers as it fell from the sword in his side, the action drawing her eyes to his. "...I shan't, Ms. Kujikawa."

His words weren't as comforting as Rise'd hoped, given he still had a sword in his side, but it was enough to dry her eyes with.

For a moment, the want to remain by his side was palpable, until Rise remembered that her friends were still inside the thing that had nearly chopped Astaire in two. Not wanting to bear witness to more horrifically crippling wounds, she evoked Kouzeon and resumed keeping an eye on everyone, Astaire now included. His vitals were bad, but at least he wasn't getting worse.

The pain was excruciating, causing Astaire's head to swim as he tried focusing on the blurring image of Rise standing above him. Every so often she would issue commands or information to one of the party members still in the midst of battle, _anything_ but dare focus on him for a second longer.

_Perfect._

With a pained wince, Astaire caught Kanji's attention as he turned his head on instinct. Without a word, he pointed to the sword, then splayed his fingers and made a pushing motion outwards from the wound. Sensing what he was after, Kanji widened his eyes and shook both his head and hands quickly. Like _hell_ was he doing that.

" _Please."_ Astaire mouthed, giving Kanji the best look of pleading he could muster. Running a hand down his face, Kanji looked at him for a second more before gulping and beginning the walk over. He treaded lightly as Astaire brought a finger to his lips and pursed them, motioning towards Rise.

Yukiko's eyes widened as Kanji assumed his position at Astaire's side, putting a foot against the sword's tip as Astaire himself grabbed the hilt. He shot her a similar hushing motion as he saw her eyes flit to Rise, then back to him. Shaking his head as best he could, he made a quick series of motions between Yukiko and his wound, including one that seemed to imitate drinking.

" _Heal me after we pull it out."_ Was Yukiko's best guess.

She briefly looked to Rise again before sighing in defeat. The sword would have to come out sooner or later. That thought alone didn't make the act of doing it any easier, though. All the same, Sumeo-Okami rippled into being above her as she gave Kanji and Astaire a nod.

The boys gave each other a similar nod as Astaire held up three fingers and took a deep breath. Three. Two. _One._

Horrific, guttural screaming filled the air alongside the sound of flesh searing, bones cracking and blood simmering off the heated blade. In an instant Kouzeon as gone as Rise spun around, looking twice as distraught as before. " _What are you doing?!_ You promised me you-!"

Sumeo-Okami faded out of existence as Astaire slowly brought himself to his feet, a gaping hole in the side of coat acting as a window for the large, newly formed scar underneath. "You ordered me to refrain from hurting myself, correct?" He slowly knelt down to pick up his sword, fighting the stiffness in his newly-healed side. "You never gave such an order to Mr. Tatsumi." He said as he threw the Zweihander up to his shoulder and wiped off his own blood.

It was a confusing feeling, what Rise felt. Some combination of relief at him being alright, annoyance at the loophole involved and frustration at him looking ready to run in all over again. "You're not going back in there just to get yourself killed for real this time!" She flung a hand out towards the ongoing battle her friends were fighting. "If we can't do it together, there's no use in you dying on your own!"

"Hmm. Very well, I see your point." Astaire admitted, gazing intensely into the fray of battle. "I shan't run in alone. Not if Mr. Tatsumi will accompany me." He tossed Kanji a glance, which he returned with very obvious surprise written on his face. "You are adept with shields, are you not? Then we shall forge a path to the centre of this monstrosity. Together."

As he spoke, Astaire tucked his sword back into his coat, tugging the Bottomless Box out afterwards. Just as he was about to ask why, Kanji got an answer. Using both hands, Astaire grunted and heaved as he retrieved a massive, hulking greatshield from the box. It looked to be cut from solid rock, and draped in chains besides. It was a wonder he was able to lift it at all. Kanji accepted it as it was handed to him, tossing his current shield aside.

Given how heavy it looked, Kanji was surprised to find that it was actually rather light. He was further surprised by Astaire's awed gasp as he realised he was holding it single-handedly. "Woah, this thing's awesome. Coulda' used this earlier, really."

"I… wasn't anticipating you to handle it with such ease." Astaire said, lifting his hung jaw off the ground as he handed Kanji _another_ identical greatshield, then picked out a third for himself. "With three of these, we should be able to reach that abhorrent fiend at the center in no time. No blade or spell known to man can penetrate Havel's Greatshield." He boasted with a confident grin.

* * *

The assault seemed more and more futile as time went on. Yu's hacking and slashing had done little but attract more attention from more weapons, his body and mind beginning to tire from the sheer physical and mental exertion of dealing with them. As he dodged an attack from another three blades trying to kill him, he realised that things had gotten more difficult and little else.

Astaire had flown past him earlier. That meant nobody was dealing with the being in the center of the ghostly cloud. Having gotten nowhere attacking the ghosts, the only logical conclusion was to head for that being once more. The only issue was getting there. If either he or Naoto stopped attacking, they'd be overwhelmed in seconds. They needed something, _anything_ that would enable them to-

" _OUTTA THE WAY, SENPAI!"_ Yu and Naoto whirled around just in time to see a thick wall of stone barrelling towards them, with Kanji's voice and several pairs of footsteps coming from behind. They dodged to the right and left respectively, getting a brief glimpse of Kanji and Astaire leading the charge with three shields between them, Yukiko and Rise hot on their heels. The chains and weapons parted like the Red Sea against their unstoppable charge, leaving a clear path devoid of weapons behind them.

Yeah, that'd just about do the job.

Yu and Naoto dashed after the rest of their friends before the chained-up armaments could come back to their senses.

Reconvening with everyone else was simple. The sound of a thousand weapons being forced aside by solid rock wasn't easy to ignore, not even about the sound of Yosuke's Garudyne. "Hey, you hear that, right?!" Chie yelled down to Yosuke. "That must be everyone else! Hurry up, we gotta meet up with them!" She commanded, taking off in the direction of the cacophony.

"Wait a minute, we're not waiting for Teddie?!"

No sooner had he asked, a blonde-white blue shot past him at breakneck speed, hurtling after Chie. "Teddie waits for nobody! Unless he's scoring with them!" He added as he quickly caught up to her.

Eager to not be left behind, Yosuke sprinted after the quickly-disappearing images of his friends, grinning proudly at he and Chie's handiwork. They'd done a pretty good job of keeping the weapons occupied, he had to admit. Whatever was in the middle of this monstrosity would be a cakewalk, no doubt about it.

* * *

The biggest disadvantage of running behind a wall of greatshields was that it didn't make seeing where one was going very easy. Peeking around the side was out of the question, given the myriad blades being tossed around like cheap toys thanks to the charge. The only option was to fly blind, as it were. "Damnit!" Kanji grunted, "How far away is that dude in the middle anyway?!"

"I don't seem to recall it taking this long last time, Gwyn only knows what's going on now." Astaire mused, sensing that full-on sprinting shouldn't have been taking longer than rolling and dodging had.

A thick gust of wind announced Yosuke's arrival, right before Chie announced her own by landing on top of the ensuing knotted-up chains. "I see it! I see the guy in the middle!" She announced, pointing in a direction which Kanji and Astaire turned to accommodate. The Darkwraith sat suspended in the air, in the midst of a clearing which Astaire didn't recall encountering last time.

"Chie!" Yukiko called with a wave as Chie hopped down to run alongside her. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

" _You're_ glad? You're the one without any weapons, imagine how I feel!" Chie grinned in return.

The density of the chained weapons began to thin as everyone entered the clearing proper. If the Darkwraith was wise to their presence, it didn't show it, preferring instead to lie limp in its bonds, as though imprisoned against its will.

Dropping one's guard was never a good idea, but damn it all, three greatshields between two people warranted a rest. Three loud bangs rung out as Kanji and Astaire freed their hands, panting heavily as they doubled over. Despite leaving themselves open, the chained weapons seemed to be out of range. Good thing too, that would-

"Wait a minute." Astaire's eyes flew open. "Something's different from last time."

The chains couldn't have been out of range. They'd hogtied him and almost cut him in half. That meant the field of play had changed. "Be on your guard, everyone. This one seems crafty." He warned everyone, trying to reach for his sword despite the protests from his exhausted arms.

As he opened the box, Yosuke caught his eye, standing with his arms crossed. "So? How'd you screw up last time?"

"Yosuke…" Yu began warningly.

"Why isn't this thing dead already, what'd you do wrong?" He continued. Though he sounded spiteful, Astaire admitted that he _did_ have a point.

"I was careless. Normally, impalement by way of Zweihanders seldom leaves the impaled alive. Not that this is normal by any stretch." He explained, pointing to the pierce in the Darkwraith's armour where his sword had entered. "I went to retrieve my sword, then got chained up." He finished, deciding to omit the events that followed.

Wary eyes looked over the blades, which swayed lightly in their direction as though pushed by some imaginary wind. If they'd struck once, chances were they'd strike again. "We shouldn't take any chances. Everyone get in formation." Yu commanded. Everyone assumed a semi-circular formation around the Darkwraith, waiting for their leader's next instruction. "Rise, you getting anything?"

"No weaknesses, but no resistances either." She bit her lip mid-analysis. "This thing's alive alright, it's just not showing it."

No strengths or weaknesses meant magic would do just fine. Everyone summoned their Personas at once. The enemy wasn't moving. All was quiet. That meant only one thing.

Time for an All-Out Attack.

Yu sprinted away from his starting position, raising his sword as Izanagi-No-Okami mirrored the motion, bringing it down on the Darkwraith with a force that could crush gods.

The sound of metal on metal rung out from Yu's direction. He blinked in surprise, finding himself face to face with a thick, coiling tangle of chains. It extended from either side of the clearing, having stepped between both his and Izanagi's blades within the blink of an eye.

With a sudden burst of momentum, the coil lashed out and parried both attacks, leaving Yu and Izanagi's fronts wide open. As quickly as they'd appeared, the coil began to untangle, a wall of deadly sharp swords and daggers thrusting out towards Yu's chest. They moved with a speed Astaire had never seen equaled, so quick that it would've been impossible to fend off under the circumstances.

Impossible in _Lordran,_ anyway. Astaire's eyes bulged out of his head as Yu and Izanagi fended off the array of weapons that struck out at them both, speed verging on unseeable as the sound of metallic clangs filled the air. Awe set Astaire's jaw ajar at the sight. He was strong, without a doubt, but never in his dizziest daydreams could be even imagine being _that_ fast.

"Watch yourself, you idiot!" The words registered in the back of Astaire's head as both of Kanji's shields blocked his line of sight, a loud thump coming from the other side. A hand then grasped his shoulder and spun him around, putting him face-to-face with Kanji himself, looking less than pleased with him. "Pay attention, will ya?! These things are after us too!" He bellowed, scooping up his shields and heading towards the others.

Artorias' Greatsword in hand once again, Astaire approached the melee which had quickly escalated behind Yu and Izanagi. Weapons on chains flying about from every angle, including types he had personal experience with. Battleaxes, partizans, Balder shields, shotels, every conceivable weapon he could think of swiped at him with malicious intent. He swung the sword over his head in a wide arc, reducing a cluster of spears to splinters overhead.

 _Rise._ She was still unarmed. She didn't have a shield, nor a combat-worthy Persona. _He had to get to her._ Fending off the additions to the Darkwraith's arsenal, Astaire sprinted towards the rest of the team, ducking under Chie mid-flying kick. Kanji held both shields up in an attempt to keep Rise and Yukiko safe, while Yosuke and Teddie sat outside the makeshift shelter and assaulted the floating weapons directly.

Rise bit her bottom lip at the sign of everyone's vitals. Chie's reliance on physical skills was wearing her out quickly, as was Yukiko's use of magic. Even Yu, while significantly better off than everyone else, was getting worn down at a consistent rate. "We need to try and strike the Darkwraith directly, or we're all gonna get pushed back!"

"If only it were that easy!" Astaire yelled, dodging over a swinging halberd and slicing through a smaller coil of chains that aimed for his feet. "These twisted limbs are hard enough to sever as is, Mr. Narukami will never make it through something that large on his own!" He stopped attacking, briefly retreating to peek inside Kanji's shield at Rise, Yukiko and he. "We must do something other than defend ourselves!"

"Like what?!" Yosuke asked mid-bladed-somersault. "In case you haven't noticed, we're doing all we can!"

Back into the fray, Astaire cleared Yosuke's blindside of chained-up claymores. "There must be _something_ we can do! Everything has a weakness, or a flaw of some kind! We need only determine what it is!"

Easier said than done. If Rise and her friends were struggling this much together, what good could he alone do?

But there _was_ something. At the edge of Kouzeon's range, Rise could make out a strange, lingering energy which had been present since they'd begun charging, never having moved since. She lifted her visor up, squinting across the field of blades in the direction of the anomaly. At last, she caught sight of it. A thick block of ice sat firmly on the ground, with several swords and daggers frozen within. They hadn't retreated yet, nor had they shaken it off.

No, not that they hadn't. They _couldn't._ "That's it!" Rise realised, shoving her eyes into the visor again. "Teddie, you need to help Senpai right away! Freeze those chains solid so we can kill this thing once and for all!"

Under his claws, worn and torn from constant battle, Teddie shot her a thumbs up. "No problem, Rise-chan!" He evoked Kamui-Moshiri as he dashed off towards Yu from his position beside Naoto. "Bufudyne, now!" He cried as the air sharply chilled around him, a thick block of ice engulfing the storm of metal which had been assaulting Yu and Izanagi.

At last, a moment to breathe. Izanagi disappeared as Yu staggered backwards, running a hand down a particularly bad cut on his arm. Combined with the exhaustion, he was feeling far from healthy. "Thanks… Teddie…" He managed to say, quickly returning attention to the Darkwraith, now wide open. "Time to fight this thing one on one."

Yu kicked off the ground and leapt onto the block of ice, positioning himself directly in front of the Darkwraith's body. With a glint in his eye, Yu wound up for what he was intending to be the final hit, aiming for the throat. His muscles strained to accommodate the speed at which he swung, filled with deadly intent.

There was a short resistance against the swing, which ended at the peak of the arc. At last, it was-

Yu toppled backwards as the Darkwraith suddenly sprung to life, brandishing a sword identical to the one Astaire had shown at Junes. A Darksword. It was all he could do to fall off the block of ice entirely, momentarily stunned. He'd felt it! He'd felt the blade slice through his neck and out the other side, why was it still standing?!

The weight difference in his hand gave him an answer. The blade of his katana had shattered, rendering it useless on impact. Frustration stirred in him as he swung around to the team, eyes locked on Astaire. The effort needed to end the fight was infuriating enough, but trying to do it with faulty weaponry? " _ASTAIRE-SAN! I NEED ANOTHER SWORD!"_

From within the chaos of exploding magical attacks and the roar of clashing swords, Astaire found the time to turn between attacks. "I don't have any more cursed ones!" He shouted, cursing himself internally. It was a katana, of course it was going to shatter eventually! He simply hadn't expected it to happen so soon. Given how engaged Izanagi-No-Okami was with the Darkwraith, countering every attack the Persona launched at it, a Transient Curse seemed out of the question too. "Stand your ground as best you can! Retreat if you need to!"

A solid hit. The Darksword embedded itself in Izanagi's wrist, forcing Yu to clutch his own as the pain spread across it likewise. Rise gasped at the sudden drop in his vitals and couldn't help but react. "Senpai, no! We need to do something, quick!" She cried out to her friends.

"On it!" Naoto ducked under a very persistent scythe, whipping around and firing a bolt at the Darkwraith. Thin and quick, the bolt soared unperturbed through the air, striking the Darkwraith in the eye before it could react.

As the resulting roar of pain shook the very ground itself, every chained up weapon visibly shook and quivered in time. It was as though the bolt had struck all of them at once, and the sight was enough to light up Rise's face with glee. "Senpai, that's it! They're classed as separate targets, but they're still linked together! Naoto-kun, keep hitting that thing where it hurts!"

The momentary lapse in action on the weapons' part left Naoto ample time to nod affirmatively, reload and take aim under Astaire's watchful, curious eye.

He lingered on the thin metal bolts she handled. Longer and thinner than a spearhead, and only a hair above a feather's weight. The entire pouch he'd handed her - no, perhaps _twenty_ such pouches - couldn't have hoped to approach the weight and might of his Zweihander. Yet between the two weapons, only one was proving effective against the Darkwraith, and it wasn't his.

As Naoto quickly raised the crossbow and fired a second later, forcing another roar from the Darkwraith and another quake from the array of weapons surrounding it, Astaire swore he felt a tad humbler than he had before.

The majority of the battle ground to a halt as the Darkwraith writhed, allowing the team to reform and get into formation as they made a mad dash for Yu. Chie, Kanji and Astaire took the frontline, forming a wall of heavy hitters between their target, Yukiko, Rise, Yosuke and Naoto. "Kanji-kun! Fall back when everyone gets in close, I've got an idea!" Yukiko cried, summoning Sumeo-Okami to float aside her.

"Everyone…" Yu began, an exhausted, lopsided smile barely forming on his lips as he turned to face his friends. "I'm glad you're all-"

Yu was cut short as the ice-bound chains tensed under the surface and shattered their crystalline prison with one violent burst, sending dagger-like shards of ice in every direction. Dodging was out of the question. Excruciating, mind-fogging pain interlaced with sheer cold ran up Yu's side as three shards riddled him like a pincushion. The pain slowly began turning to numbness, the cold turning to seductive exhaustion. All the same, Yu clenched his jaw and refused to fall, willing himself to stay on both feet.

Standing was just about possible. Moving wasn't. The numbness spread quickly through Yu's leg, leaving him little else to do but watch as the Darkwraith lifted the Darksword aloft, preparing to split him in two. As much as he tried, as much as willed it, summoning Izanagi proved daunting. The cold was beginning to interfere with his ability to focus. He couldn't dodge. He couldn't defend himself. All Yu could will himself to do was close his eyes and await death's embrace.

The tip of the Darksword disappeared behind the Darkwraith's back before it aggressively swung down to deliver the final blow.

...Which never came. Curiously alive, Yu peeked a puzzled eye open, immediately feeling _more_ puzzled at the sight that awaited him. The Darkwraith, Darksword-less, glancing between both hands like they'd grown heads and begun talking. "Ohoho… Looking for this, are you?" The adversary glanced over their shoulder, meeting Teddie's smug expression as he waggled the Darksword in front of him. "Haven't you ever been told that it's rude to bring a sword to a footfight?"

" _WA-TAH!"_ Resident footfight expert Chie yelled as she leapt into the air and delivered a bone-shattering dropkick directly into the Darkwraith's face. She retreated with a majestic backflip, just before a lightning-fast volley of bolts from Naoto pierced both the Darkwraith's face and hands.

Astaire ran in for the third hit, leaping up as best he was able and slicing at the chains keeping the Darkwraith aloft. His sword being as long as it was, he dispatched all but a few of the chains and left the Darkwraith hanging limply from what chains remained.

Soothing light washed over Yu as Yukiko made her first move, fending off the numb, the pain and the lingering shards of ice. His mobility restored, Yu had just enough time to dodge out of the way as Yukiko reared up for part two of her plan.

At Yukiko's command, Kanji had indeed held back from the frontline, Havel's Greatshield held at his back. Sumeo-Okami moved from Yu to him, surging with power as a powerful explosion roared out from behind the shield, the shockwave from the blast sending Kanji flying into the air like a rock-laden bullet. He hurtled towards the Darkwraith just as it began to come around, lifting higher into the air and towards the chains anew. " _GET WRECKED, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"_ Kanji bellowed. As the two prepared to collide, Kanji wrenched Havel's Greatshield around in front of him, performing a shield bash so explosively powerful that the Darkwraith was ripped from its chains entirely, soaring back with Kanji in tow.

The ground was nearing. With little time to spare, Kanji drove the bottom of the shield into the Darkwraith's chest, beating it down as he wound up surfing atop its body. The sound of armour colliding violently off the ground and scattering was all the proof anybody needed that it hurt. A lot. Eventually, the momentum began to wear off, leaving Kanji hauling his shield out of a barely armoured, badly beaten corpse.

A collective sigh of relief left everyone at once. Finally, _finally,_ the Darkwraith was dead. For good.

Regrouping took a while. Not only had Kanji flown as far away as he had, but exhaustion ran rampant through everyone on the team without exception. "I think we can agree on one thing, at least…" Yu started, pointing at Kanji. "That was pretty awesome."

"Kinda had to be." Kanji said as he set his greatshield down and stretched his arms out. "After all that crap with those ghosts earlier, I don't think I could'a summoned Takeji-Zaiten even if I'd wanted to. Good thing Yukiko-senpai's a quick thinker." He grinned, nodding towards a very modest-looking Yukiko.

"Speaking of ghosts…" Rise piped up, Kouzeon's visor adorning her head. "We still need to clean up the rest of them, don't we? But don't worry!" She quickly added as a wave of sighs sounded out. "I don't think it's gonna be too much of a problem!" She grinned deviously.

Yu cocked an eyebrow at her mischievous expression. "What do you mean?"

"Those ghosts? They're all separate targets now." Rise continued to grin as the multitudinous weapons and chains above them began retreating into the air, back towards the ghosts that held them. "Looks like those chains connected to the Darkwraith were binding them all together. You know what that means!" She sing-songed.

Oh, yes. Everyone knew exactly what that meant. The only exception was Astaire, who tilted his head in bewilderment as Izanagi-No-Okami manifested above Yu. "Oh yeah. Astaire-san. You've never seen this before, have you?" Yu asked. Before the inevitable 'seen what?', Yu belted out his final command at the top of his lungs.

" **MEGIDOLAON!"**

* * *

It was simultaneously the most beautiful and most most destructive thing Astaire had ever bore witness to.

The ground rumbled. The air shook. The intense winds whipped up his coattails behind him. The sound of catastrophic annihilation filled his ears as the incomprehensibly bright light tore away at the infinite darkness around him, like a bolt from Lord Gwyn himself had struck the Abyss and had rent it in twain. It felt as though the Megidolaon would never subside, that the divine force would forever linger and assault all of his senses until the end of time itself.

Eventually, the attack did indeed subside, a lasting ringing in Astaire's ears sitting as a frightening reminder of just how powerful these 'Personas', and Izanagi-No-Okami in particular, could be. A sentiment he only felt more strongly as he gazed up in the air. A smile spread to his and everyone else's faces as not a single ghost remained to be seen.

"Alright, now let's get outta here!" Teddie exclaimed, swiftly stopping everyone's previous joy dead in its tracks.

Goddamnit, they were still trapped. There was still no way out.

The only thing resembling an exit at all was the small TV, from which their most recent nightmare had been spawned. Everyone glanced around at one another, exchanging looks which all seemed to echo one sentiment. There was no way in Hell anyone was going inside it, viable exit or no.

"In any case, we'd better get rid of this thing." Yukiko said, looking the TV up and down. "If we leave it, more ghosts start coming out again and we'd have to start over!"

Both a valid point and a sobering thought. "I'll do it. Everybody stand back." Yu took point, retrieving the Darksword from Teddie and gripping it with both hands, levelling it with the top of the screen. Everyone held their respective breaths as he slowly raised the sword above his head. One downward slice later, the TV parted cleanly in the middle and collapsed on either side, the screen bereft of static.

"Nice one. Now let's try and find a…" Yosuke began before trailing off. Another, lighter rumbling had begun underfoot. "What the…? Don't tell me something else is coming for us!" He yelled as the rumbling grew more intense over time, approaching levels that'd rival Yu's Megidolaon.

Everyone gawked and twisted around frantically, trying to ascertain what exactly was happening. Before too long, an answer presented itself. Both sides of the bisected TV began scraping along the ground, away from the Team. It began slowly, but quickly started gaining speed, as though being attracted to an unseeable magnet in the distance. Reflex commanded Astaire to dodge as something entered his peripheral vision. He moved just in time to see the broken hilt he'd discarded earlier rush past his head, following after the TV.

Everyone's attention was drawn at once by a yelp from Yukiko's direction. "D-Don't look!" She blushed, hands at her front as she tried to keep her dress flattened. From the looks of it, her dress was beginning to be drawn into the distance as well, threatening to reveal more than anyone beyond Yu needed to see. At that, similar things began happening to everyone else. Naoto's hat tried flying off her head, Kanji's necklace stood up of its own accord and Astaire's coattails seemed to have gained a mind of their own.

Of everyone, Teddie's luck was the worst. "Woah, where am I going?! Someone help!" Rather than a article of clothing, _Teddie himself_ had begun being drawn away from everyone. He walked on the spot, then jogged, then ran. Whatever was wrong with him, it was getting worse. What's more, the effect was spreading. Yukiko and Naoto were the second and third to move off respectively. Kanji reacted quickly by grabbing Naoto's wrist. Notably, he himself hadn't moved off yet.

Sensing what was coming, Astaire quickly grasped Rise's wrist, returning her surprised look with a stern one of his own. "Don't worry. This… whatever it is, isn't taking you anywhere." He said seriously, hiding his concern as he watched Yosuke reach out to Teddie.

"Faster Yosuke, faster!" He cried desperately, full-on sprinting in place as Yosuke inched his hand ever closer to his. As their fingertips scraped, Teddie made a desperate last-ditch effort and leapt, grabbing onto Yosuke's arm with both of his own. Whatever invisible force pulled at him, it was now strong enough to lift his feet entirely off the ground.

"H-Hey! Damnit, I can't…!" Yosuke heaved, sensing his feet beginning to slip underneath him. "Ted, I can't pull you back! At this rate we're both-!"

A collective gasp sounded out as Yosuke finally lost his balance, slamming into the ground and hurtling away after Teddie at breakneck speeds, yelling all the while. It only took a few seconds of speeding into the distance for the darkness to swallow them whole, their faint points of colour visible to nobody.

Friends swallowed by darkness. A scene Yu hoped he'd never have to see repeated. _"YOSUKE! TEDDIE!"_ He screamed fruitlessly into the distance. Friction soon began to fail him as well, turning his mind to Yukiko. Before she could slip any further away, he reached out and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly against his chest. "Just hold on! Whatever happens, don't let go!"

The fear on her face was palpable. His touch did little to change that. But holding her close was liable to bring them some peace of mind, no matter how small a measure.

If it was a good enough course of action for Yu, it was good enough for Astaire. Darkness encompassed the end of Astaire's Zweihander as he plunged it into the inky black ground with his off-hand, releasing his dominant's grip on Rise's wrist to instead reach around her waist and hold her in close to himself. To hell with indecency, desperate times called for desperate measures.

Kanji had reacted similarly, planting Havel's Greatshield into the ground and grasping at Naoto's waist. In spite of the seriousness of the situation, they couldn't help but look rather flustered and flushed at the whole ordeal.

Unfortunately, as Teddie had mentioned earlier, everyone pairing up as they did was always going to result in one person being left out. "Yukiko, Yukiko!" Chie clamoured, sliding past Naoto and Kanji at a rate which threatened to send her past Yu and Yukiko as well.

Yu was one thing to her, but Chie was another entirely. YUkiko dared to let go of Yu, outstretching an arm and grasping Chie's as firmly as she could. Admirable though it was, the act bore consequence. Holding back the combined mass of two people was out of Yu's depth. His footing gave way. They were doomed. Grey, red and green soared away from the final four members of the Investigation team before they could even scream for help.

"H-Holy shit!" Kanji blurted out. He shot Astaire a terrified look, which he quickly mirrored. Whatever the reason they were hadn't met their fate, Astaire sensed they were merely delaying the inevitable. Both he and Rise were only being pulled at ever more strongly. "What the Hell do we do?! There ain't no way of stoppin' it!" Kanji shouted again as he threw off his necklace before it outright decapitated him.

But Astaire had no answer. Lordran hadn't prepared him for this, not at all. No amount of cycles could, he imagined.

As the words failed to come, his gaze instead turned to Rise, who had turned to bury her face in his coat as she quivered under his grip.

He owed her. He owed her more than he could ever hope to repay. By the Gods, if holding on was what he needed to do to protect her, he'd hold on. Duty mixed with desire, resulting in a mixture of pure determination. Enough for Astaire to wrap his arm around the hilt of his sword for a stronger grip, even as the weathered wood of his bottomless box pressed harder and harder into his side, with such force that he wondered if it might break through him entirely.

His determination was matched only by Kanji's, who held both Naoto and his shield firm. In the face of such an illogical situation, Naoto looked completely bewildered. It was a look that mirrored what Astaire was thinking. Their efforts were futile. They would let go sooner or later. Even still, she clutched at Kanji's shirt for dear life, some small part of her flying in the face of the inevitable.

A sharp lunge threatened to stop Astaire's heart completely. Looking down only confirmed his fears. Whatever threshold the force had for dragging things off, it was beginning to affect his Zweihander. It had pivoted in the ground. He and Rise were too much for it to hold. A second, stronger lunge shocked Astaire a second time, throwing his arm off the hilt and forcing him to resume holding on with his hand alone.

Every muscle inside him screamed. Those on the right wanted to let go of Rise, while those on the left wished to release the sword. Despite feeling like he was being quartered, Astaire intended to do neither. Then the otherworldly force clutching at he and Rise entered overkill territory. Astaire's senses began to fall apart under the immense gravitational strain. His ears filled with white noise, his vision began to fail him as he began seeing six Kanjis alongside him. He could feel space forming between his shoulderblades and bones, between the fingers holding him to his sword and the arm which linked them. His hair threatened to rip itself entirely out of his head, while his fingernails nearly tore themselves off his fingers altogether.

He was going to be torn limb from limb. And there was nothing he could do about it.

A single tear rolled down Astaire's cheek and shot off his face. He sensed his eyes wouldn't be far behind.

His pool of stamina was run so dry that it had practically cracked the base. No amount of gargantuan strength would avail him. With sorrow hanging deep in his heart, Astaire loosened his grip on the sword. He couldn't feel his fingers, opting instead to throw his other arm around Rise, hoping on his life that he might protect her from whatever they might be heading for.

Far, far out of his depth, Knight Astaire's body shut down, sending him into a deep, unwilling sleep.

* * *

Even through firmly shut eyes, Yosuke could feel how bright it was. After being stuck in a featureless black hell for however long, the slightest form of light felt like hot coals on his retinas. Nevertheless, the fact that there was light to be seen at all was enough of a surprise to coax his eyes open… _"AGH, HOLY HELL!"_ …and painful enough to have him immediately regret doing so. Yosuke bolted upright and, after much eye-wiping and subsequent cursing under his breath, managed to look up.

The sky was lit with warm, red shades as the sun began to disappear over the horizon. Given it'd been light out when everyone had gone in, it was no stretch to assume that some significant time had passed since then.

Thinking of going in, when had they come out? Though he tried, Yosuke couldn't remember.

The sight of a particular grass-stained white shirt lying next to him, topped with a blonde head of hair, served to jolt his memory, making him recall… _most_ of what happened. He sure as Hell remembered soaring away from the rest of his friends, that had stayed all too clearly.

Which brought another thought to mind. He and Teddie were alright. Surely, then, it was within reason that…

Turning around further, Yosuke's hopes were realised. However they'd done it, everyone had gotten out safe and sound. Yu, Yukiko and Chie were lying together, Kanji and Naoto were adjacent to one another, and then…

The sight of the last duo brought Yosuke's blood to an instant boil. _Astaire and Rise._ Of course. Like he'd have it any other way.

Making trouble for Rise in the paper was one thing.

Dragging them to some godforsaken abandoned house to hunt for ghosts was another thing. As was getting split up, separated and lost.

Bringing along a Darkwraith, a graveyard's worth of ghosts and _NEVER-ENDING, INFINITE DARKNESS_ to their world? That was something else. What it was was the last goddamn straw.

Yosuke's legs propelled him towards Astaire's limp body as his hands balled into fists automatically. It didn't matter that he was passed out face-down on the grass. This had gone far enough. "You bastard…" He growled, hand lunging for Astaire's shoulder while the other wound back for a punch. _"YOU DRAGGED US INTO THIS! I'LL KILL YOU!"_

As he rolled Astaire over and prepared to swing, something held his fist back. Yosuke wheeled around, ready to add his usurper to the list of people he needed to beat down, only to see that it was Yu that had stopped him. Never mind what had happened, the dude had a permanent exemption from the Hanamura Rotten Shit List.

"Yosuke." Yu began seriously. "Let go of him."

" _You_ let go of _me!_ " Yosuke barked. "It's time you stopped standing up for this guy!"

But Yu's grip held firm, if not firmer than it had before. "Sort it out when he wakes up, we've got bigger problems right now."

Speechless, Yosuke tried lining up the plethora of things wrong with that sentence, until Yu glanced away from him. He followed his gaze, looking further up the grassy hill they were on. On closer inspection, it seemed rather familiar. It was, in fact, the location where the supposedly haunted house had been.

'Been' being the key word. The house was gone.

"I'm not sure what's going on here, Yosuke." Yu began as he loosened his grip, sensing the aggression leave Yosuke's fist. Evidently, Astaire's face could wait. "But it nearly killed us in there. All of us. If it had happened to anyone else…" He paused, sighing lightly as he sat down next to Yukiko. "If this winds up like last year, we're gonna have to stop it again. Assuming we're able to."

Yosuke let slip a similar sigh and sat next to Chie.

They may have been alive, but the situation still seemed dim. He simply didn't have it in him to darken it any further. He'd had enough darkness for a lifetime.


	7. On the Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An awkward dream, a dress rehearsal, and a music enthusiast.

Darkness. Few beings in Lordran could claim to not be sobered by the mere thought of it. The events it was directly responsible for. What it represented. Whatever reason among the many to choose from, the Dark oft chilled the spines of those who cogitated over it for any amount of time.

Cogitation beyond the realms of combat wasn't one of Astaire's strong points. Of course, the Dark and its influence was to be fought and feared wherever possible, but that was it. A point on Lordran's roadmap which he need only hop into and hop out of afterwards, Lord Soul fragment in hand. An obstacle. Obstacles didn't instill one with the deep, primal fear the Dark was usually afforded.

But watching people he knew desperately cling to life without hope of escape within it? That would do the trick.

Stirring behind closed eyes, the momentary darkness sent a shock through Astaire that bolted him upright on instinct. As his eyes cracked, taking in the grass in front of him and the slowly descending sunset, shock gave way to relief. He was alive. Gods be praised.

Then the adrenaline from the shock began to wear off. Astaire let out a groan and clenched his teeth as he lay back again. Every single part of his torso hurt. Badly. Fervent pain lingered in his hand, which he'd apparently shoved inside his coat at some point. He couldn't remember doing so himself.

Pain played subordinate to concern as Astaire's thoughts turned to his comrades. It stung like a horde of biting rats, but Astaire forced himself to sit upright. Yu and Yosuke were sat next to Yukiko and Chie, with Teddie lingering not far off. Similarly, Kanji and Naoto slowly regained their senses a short distance away. Admiration for Kanji swelled in Astaire's breast at the sight. He'd held onto her waist until the very end.

Finally, much to his relief, Rise slept soundly beside him. He elected not to wake her, given that he wasn't exactly up to the task of moving himself, never mind anyone else.

Sighing and running his non-searing hand down his face, Astaire tried his best to ignore the pain for now. At the bottom of the hill, he could spy both his and everyone else's weapons, all tossed haphazardly into one pile. The sight of his Zweihander perched atop Havel's Greatshield had him awash with fresh relief. Excellent. One less thing to worry about.

The searing started up again, reminding Astaire that while his weapon was fine, he still wasn't looking forward to picking it up. He took a deep breath and swallowed his hesitation as he retrieved his injured left hand from the confines of his coat. Upon seeing it, he cringed. Long, bloody, horizontal cuts adorned both his hand and wrist. From the looks of the skin surrounding them, loose and asymmetrically parted, it was clear that it'd been torn rather than cut. That alone left little doubt regarding what had caused it. _"Well,"_ Astaire thought to himself, _"at least nothing else is wrong with me."_ As far as he could tell.

"W-Whoa!"

"Ah!"

The voices had come from Kanji and Naoto respectively. The former awakening and finding his arm still attached to Naoto's miniscule frame, he'd attempted to withdraw it, but not gently enough to stop her noticing. The two quickly lapsed into an awkward pause, each waiting for the other to speak. "I… um…" Naoto began, eyes wide and hands lingering on where Kanji had held her. "Th-Thank you. I believed… I thought the Abyss might…" What few times Naoto found herself at a loss for words, Kanji couldn't help but flush on instinct.

"N-No problem. Any time." He stammered, waving his arms as he realised how his previous statement could be interpreted. "T-The helping thing, I mean! Not the… the…"

"Of course." Naoto quickly nodded, silencing them both. After a moment, they both eased up and lay back on the grass together, carefully out of reach of the other's limbs.

Watching the two of them brought a smile to Astaire's face. Something about the both of them together was at the same time amusing and rather heartwarming.

"As… taire?" The sound of Rise's voice coaxed Astaire into quickly concealing his hand again. "We're… alright?" She said slowly, pushing herself up and rubbing her eyes. Her eyes flitted between the ground, the sky, and her friends in the distance before the finally settled on Astaire. Without warning her arms were wrapped around him, her head pressed against his right arm. "We did it! We're alright!" She squeaked excitedly.

"Agh! Ms. Kujikawa, please!" Astaire protested as the sudden pressure on his torso sent a fresh jolt of pain through it.

She recoiled with a gasp, looking apologetic as her hands went to her mouth. "I'm sorry! Are you hurt? Is it bad?"

"No, no, I'm quite alright." Astaire lied, shaking his head. "More importantly, how are _you_ feeling?"

"I'm alright, I guess. But…" She trailed off with a gasp, eyes locked on Astaire's coat. A small patch of purple had appeared. "You're bleeding, aren't you?" Rise asked quietly.

"It's nothing. R-Really." Astaire couldn't help but stammer as he struggled to keep his face straight. It was the slightest of missteps, but it was enough to only worsen the worry on Rise's face.

She reached out towards the end of his coat, encouraging Astaire to inch away as best an injured man could. "Astaire-kun…" Rise began softly. With each nudge he made to the side, she nudged along just as much. "C'mon, let me see how bad it is. We might be able to fix it."

While Astaire's knowledge of Personas was anything but encyclopedic, he'd at least picked up that they were only supposed to work in certain places. While Yukiko had been able to fix the divide in his side in the Not-Abyss, he got the distinct feeling that the real world wouldn't be quite as generous.

In spite of his best efforts to the contrary, Astaire couldn't keep Rise away forever. As moving finally became too difficult, the flow of fresh air across his skin alerted him that his secret was out. "Oh no…" Rise's reaction was much as he'd expected. "That's a lot of blood… D-Don't worry!" Rise quickly reached into her pockets and retrieved her phone. "I'll call an ambulance, just hold on!"

"A whatbulance? Don't call anything, I told you that I'm fine!"

The ensuing back-and-forth between the two caught Naoto's ear. "Rise-san, what's the matter?" As she got up to walk over, her ankle seemed to give way underneath her, forcing her to kneel.

"Naoto!" Kanji called out, pushing himself to his feet. With only his left arm, Astaire noted. His right one was hanging limply at his side.

First his hand and wrist, then Naoto's leg, and now Kanji's arm to top it all off. "Ms. Kujikawa." Astaire began, stopping Rise mid-dial. "If we're anything to go by, you're liable to be injured too. Please make sure you're alright."

Her thumb lingered over the 'call' button. "What? But your hand…"

"I'm telling you, I'm fine!" He lied more insistently. "Please, just put that thing away and stand up. Show me you're alright."

Hesitantly, Rise stuffed her phone away and worked her way onto her feet. She seemed stable while she got up, so her legs were fine. Her arms seemed to work as well. "Ow!" Then she'd tried standing up straight, accomplishing nothing but doubling herself over. "What the heck? My back's killing me!" She complained, running her hand over the affected area. The same area Astaire's arm had occupied in the Not-Abyss, he realised guiltily.

"How's everyone feeling? Yu asked as he strode over, Yosuke, the girls and Teddie at his side. "You all look like you've seen better days."

"You can say that again…" Rise rubbed her back carefully, occasionally flinching when she touched certain areas. "Senpai… You've gotta ring Astaire-kun an ambulance, his hand's all-"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Astaire butted in. "If you're going to ring an ambu-whatsit for anyone, it should be Ms. Kujikawa!"

Hobbling be damned, Rise rounded on him, brow lowered. "Stop being so awkward! I'm not the one who's bleeding here!"

"I've been through worse, even in the space of today alone! I insist that you see to your own wounds first!" Astaire rounded back.

Rise let out a sort of frustrated noise as she screwed up her face. Stupid awkward caring knightly idiot.

Luckily, a crack and a yell diverted their respective attentions. " _AGH!_ Damnit, that hurts!" Kanji complained as Naoto tugged forcefully at his limp arm, sounding out another crack. " _CRAP!_ The Hell're you tryin' to do to me?!" He gestured to Naoto, flailing his arms in a rage.

_Both arms,_ he suddenly realised. "A slight dislocation as all, hardly very serious." Naoto assessed, looking sufficiently satisfied with her handiwork. Without much to complain about, Kanji awkwardly scratched the back of his head, mumbling something which sounded thankful. "Unfortunately, I doubt Astaire-san's injury will be as easily fixed."

"Might'a been the way you were holdin' onto that sword of yours." Kanji suggested. "Looked pretty damn sore from where we were sittin'."

_Not as sore as it felt._ Astaire thought to himself. Determined not to be gotten the better of, he placed his injured hand on the ground for support and slowly got to his feet, leaving a bloody handprint in his wake. Every part of his torso protested, but said protests were drowned out by the overwhelming urge to stand and get better. It still took longer than he'd have liked.

"Say…" Chie piped up. "Don't you still have that bottle of awful-tasting stuff you gave me and Yosuke before? The glowing stuff."

Astaire blinked and stared into space for a beat. "...That's an excellent idea. Why didn't I think of that?" With little hesitation, he retrieved his Estus Flask with his good arm and raised it to his lips. He could've sworn his muscles felt more at ease even before he'd ingested it.

Then he paused.

He'd given Chie and Yosuke a sip each. He'd taken some before meeting Rise in the TV World.

Exactly how much Estus did he have left?

He was human now. Mortal. Death was no longer just an inconvenience, it was the end. Period. Faced with his own mortality, having an instant cure-all would be a great advantage. Being without it, however…

" _Well, I suppose I rested at the Shrine before I headed to the Archives. I couldn't have_ that _few sips left, surely."_ He reassured himself. The base of the flask went up as the estus sunk down Astaire's throat. The skin on his hand quickly stitched back together as the warm sensation spread from his throat to his entire body, washing away his wounds.

Also, Chie was crazy. Estus tasted fine.

With a sigh of satisfaction, Astaire immediately brightened up and turned to Naoto. "That's done it. Now all we need to do is fix Ms. Kujikawa's back and we'll all be fit as fiddles."

"Leave it to me." Naoto walked over with a glint in her eye, putting her back to Rise's and interlocking both their arms. She then bent forwards, lifting Rise entirely off her feet and bending her backwards. A quick squeak from Rise followed a loud cracking sound, after which she hopped of Naoto as quickly as she was able. "There. That should be sufficient."

Lo and behold, Rise marvelled as she stood up straight and twisted around on the spot. "Wow Naoto-kun, you're amazing! Where'd you learn to do that?" She asked, marvelling at her looseness.

Naoto shrugged. "Grampa possesses a varied library. In any case…" She tipped her hat back, looking up at the quickly-darkening sky. "I think it'd be wise if we headed home for today. If we get back too late, traveling through the TV World may prove a more daunting task than usual. For you especially, Senpai."

"I mean, I'd agree with you, but…" Yu stopped to examine his phone momentarily. "...Correct me if I'm wrong, Yosuke, but isn't Junes usually-"

"-Shut by now? Sure is." Yosuke finished for him before a smug smile crept onto his face. "Luckily, you're blessed enough to be friends with the one guy who has…" Something shiny flung out of Yosuke's pocket, which he grasped confidently out of mid-air. "Booyah! A master key! Let's get a move on, shall we?" He jogged up to Yu's side as he began walking off, with everybody closely following behind.

Everybody except for Kanji and Astaire, who diverted their path to head towards the large assortment of gear at the bottom of the hill. "Oh, bother. Getting all of this packed away will take a minute, I fear. I do hope we don't get left behind..." He mused as he set about gathering his belongings, smallest first. Claws, boots, katana grip, crossbow, and finally one of Havel's Greatshields. "Oh, sorry to bother you, Mr. Tatsumi-"

"Dude, seriously. My name's Kanji."

"...I'm aware." Funny, why had he brought that up? "Anyway, would you mind passing me my sword? I'm having enough trouble with these shields as is…" He grunted, dropping the first shield unceremoniously into the box.

"Sure, no sweat." Seeing how the blade had almost turned Astaire into a rack of barbecued ribs, Kanji carefully grasped the grip and hoisted the sword up. Or tried to, at least. To his surprise, he very nearly dislocated his shoulder again just by trying. "What the…? What's this thing made from?! Weighs a frickin' tonne…" In fact, judging by the obvious imprint in the ground, it likely weighed more than a few. "Who makes a sword this heavy anyway?! And who the Hell's s'posed to use it?!"

Putting the next shield away, Astaire turned to Kanji, head tilted. "Don't be ridiculous, if you could lift two of Havel's Greatshields, you…" Yet as Astaire watched Kanji shake the strain out of his hand, it seemed pretty obvious that he wasn't playing around. "...How very odd. Perhaps something's wrong with it." In one easy motion, Astaire stooped down, grabbed the Zweihander's grip and slung it over his shoulder. Kanji gawked at him in much the same way Astaire had gawked at _him_ with the greatshields.

"I 'unno. Maybe I'm just not a sword guy." Kanji wondered out loud, lifting the last greatshield and tucking it under his arm. "Gimmie one of these things any day."

" _WH-WHAT?!_ Wait just one minute!" Astaire yelped, shaking his head in disbelief. "Bishop Havel had that crafted from _solid rock!_ It weighs more than two of these!" He said, motioning to his Zweihander.

"Don't feel like it. Guess I'm just really good with shields or something." Kanji shrugged, letting the last shield drop into the box. "Who even knows, man. Normal ain't exactly in high supply when you hang around here long enough." He crouched down and retrieved the bullet necklace that'd flown off him earlier and looped it back over his head. "Whatever. You'd better get movin' if you don't want to get left behind, I'm gonna shoot off back to my place. Later." He said, walking off with a wave.

Astaire sighed to himself as he put away his sword and closed the Bottomless Box's latches. "Such odd rules this world abides by." He said, turning on the spot and quickly heading after everyone else.

* * *

"Yoohoo~!" Rise cooed through her cupped hands, smiling at the long, lingering echo that followed. "I can't get over how different Junes feels when there's nobody around. It's almost a little eerie." She commented, the sound of all four sets of clicking footsteps thick in the air.

Eerie was certainly one word for it. 'Comforting' would've been Astaire's preference. No crowds, no potential assailants around every corner, nothing but the sweet sound of relative silence.

And Yosuke, walking backwards with his hands in his pockets, "Hey. don't go pulling anything too funny! If something's out of place when my Dad gets here tomorrow, that's my ass beat!"

"I thought most kids outgrew that sort of treatment after a while." Yu grinned as Rise giggled behind him. Even Astaire couldn't resist letting slip a snort.

"Oh, shut up, you know what I meant! Just don't touch anything you don't need to, alright? I'm gonna swing 'round the back and make sure the security tapes don't show anything weird come tomorrow morning, go on without me." He said with a departing wave, ducking down one of the empty aisles.

It didn't take long to reach the usual TV set afterwards. Yu and Rise traced the path with practiced efficiency, winding up staring at their own reflections in the screen within minutes. "Hey, Senpai?" Rise turned to ask, "Today was kinda harsh on all of us. Maybe you should go and stay the night with Dojima-san."

"It's a bit late to suggest that after we came all this way, isn't it?" He asked flatly, cracking a smile as Rise's expression darkened. "Don't get me wrong, it'd be nice and all, but explaining how I got all the way out here might be a bit troublesome." He shrugged. "Not to mention explaining why I'd have to leave so early in the morning. I don't think Nanako would appreciate that."

_Early in the-?_ "Oh, shoot!" Rise pounded a fist into her other hand. "I have to up early tomorrow morning!" She swung around to face Astaire, so quickly that he couldn't resist flinching. "What's gonna happen if I don't get enough sleep tonight?! I'll be all over the place!"

Watching Yu gracefully leap into the TV behind her, Astaire stepped up to the screen himself. "All the better we get a move on, then." He said, heading in after Yu. Or trying to, at least. He smacked his hand off the screen, loud enough for a crack to sound out from his fingers. "Agh! Blast, I forgot about that part."

Not having a Persona _sucked._

"Oh, come here!" Rise grabbed Astaire's hand and dragged him into the screen behind her. Half a minute later they arrived at the foot of the familiar stack of TVs, and from the looks of things, Yu had even been kind enough to wait on the both of them.

Both of his followers safe and sound, Yu gripped his sword with a second hand. "I'm gonna head on. As much as I'd love to chat, it sounds like both of you need your beauty sleep. Besides..." He turned away to face one of the mist-covered pathways, but not before a wide grin snuck onto his face. "...There'll be plenty of time to talk later, right?"

"Bye bye, Senpai!" Rise called as he ran headlong into the mist.

"Farewell, Mr. Narukami!" Astaire called in turn.

And then there were two. With matching nods of affirmation, Rise and Astaire both turned and began making for the forest.

* * *

 "Huh? What the…?" Rise trailed off. A trail of monster corpses, charred remains and discarded weaponry dotted the forest ahead of them. "Okay, this is _super_ weird. Shadows never leave corpses. Or at least, they didn't before now…" Rise explained, eyeing up the burnt vestiges of one of the tendril-bearing monsters they'd fought earlier.

It was only when she pointed it out that Astaire began examining the bodies as well. "Really? It's the sort of thing that happens all the time in Lordran." Yet if Lordran had hammered anything into Astaire's head, it was that corpses weren't necessarily an indication of safety. He kept a hand on his Zweihander to be safe. "Though I suppose this _isn't_ Lordran, is it? Perhaps there really _is_ something odd afoot."

Rise remained silent, glancing over the remains of other not-quite-shadows as she let her thoughts run away with her. Why were shadows suddenly leaving corpses? Why had the haunted house disappeared after they fought off the Abyss? Why was the Abyss even there in the first place? Why was _any of this happening in the first place?_

She glanced up at Astaire, still surveying their surroundings. He wasn't a bad person. She was sure of it. But he had a really annoying habit of creating a lot of questions she simply didn't have answers to.

As luck would have it, answers evaded not only Rise, but Astaire himself. Specifically in relation to why Rise hadn't let go of his hand since they'd arrived.

No, no, forget it. Ignore it. The easiest solution was to stay silent about the whole ordeal. If he didn't bring it up and she didn't bring it up, that'd be that and it'd be completely fine.

...But _why_ was it completely fine? Why was she fine with it? Was she even aware she was doing it? Was it an accident or-

Astaire shook his thoughts out of focus. Overthinking the whole situation would just make matters worse. Even after shaking them free, he could feel the thought itch and scratch at the back of his skull. He shook again. Then again. The scratching continued. If anything, it only got worse.

Rise stopped as Astaire's head shaking became more frequent and frenzied. His sword lodged into the ground as he fell to one knee and raised his hands to either side of his head. "Astaire-kun, what's wrong?!" Astaire pointed to her face, specifically, what was on it that he lacked. "Oh, crap! We forgot to get a pair of glasses from Teddie! How are you feeling?!" She asked, slipping an arm around the breadth of his back and under his other arm, bringing him to his feet.

In lieu of answering, Astaire tucked his sword back into his coat.

Oh crap, he must've been bad. "Don't worry! Just a little further and we'll be out! Stay with me a little longer, okay?" Rise said between heaves. If either one of them was better suited to carrying the other, it wasn't the one whose head barely scratched the other's chin. Despite their size differences and Astaire's clumsy, half-focused steps, the Statue Grove soon came into sight.

It was a little different from earlier, Rise noticed. Two new statues had been constructed. One of herself and Astaire walking hand in hand, much like they'd done in the haunted house, another showing… her supporting Astaire under her arm? What? She'd only started that a few minutes ago!

More and more questions. But there was no time to ponder their answers. A small stack of TV sets sat at the end of the grove, lining up with where the Abyss had peeled away from. "Astaire-kun, we're here! Don't give out on me just yet!" She said softly, yet excitedly. He nodded, his brow creased and disastrously sweaty. Not wanting to waste a second more, Rise hurried him to the exit as quickly as she could, leaning back into the screen and dragging Astaire behind her.

* * *

Little was said after Rise and Astaire exited the TV. His mind addled and his limbs rife to the bone with exhaustion, he'd slumped onto the floor and barely moved for the first ten minutes.

It took an uncountable amount of increasingly lucid "I'm alright"s before Astaire finally convinced Rise to stop sitting up and go to sleep. It _was_ her who'd mentioned the importance of her sleep, after all. Staying up was illogical. After she wished him a quiet goodnight, Astaire was left alone with his thoughts.

He slipped off his coat and draped it over him like a blanket, resigning himself to gazing up at the ceiling in the dark. He felt his eyelids grow heavy as his thoughts began lulling him to the realm of unwaking, slowly inching away his lucidity as he rested his head on the carpet.

* * *

The sound of shoes off brick could be heard as the young maiden ran down the hall, her reddish hair blowing in the wind behind her as she panted the rest of her stamina away. She desperately wished to rest a while, to catch her breath, but her desire overpowered these wishes as she found herself running ever quicker down the corridor. She needed to find someone, anyone. Someone who would know what had happened and what had conspired since.

An idle turn of her head had shown her the neighbouring hallway, whereupon she spied the very woman she sook, a handmaiden of hers, carrying what appeared to be bandages. Fresh ones. Her course diverted, the red-headed maiden took off down the corridor after her. Her belongings couldn't conceal what was being hidden from her, not this time.

The bandage-maid did not attempt escape, knowing what the young girl was after. True, the words she spoke were just as she had predicted. "I beg of thee, maid! I must know, where doth he lay?! Where might I find him?!" The truth could be evaded no longer. Out of earshot of anyone else, she leaned in gently to the girl and whispered in her ear. Her eyes lit up as she took off down the corridor anew. "Bless thee! I shall see thee repaid for thine service, I vow it!" She yelled, her footsteps becoming ever more distant.

She found the door, the one she'd looked for all this time. They had stowed it away well, but no longer would she be deceived. Her heart fit to burst, she burst through the door with reckless abandon, her eyes resting upon exactly who she'd wanted. He lay atop the sheets of his bedding, one arm covered in bindings, faint stains of red seeping out in places. His chest was in a similar state, covering his shoulder and leading down to his waist.

His eyes widened upon seeing her, the surprise as clear on his face as the adoration was on hers. "F-Fair Lady!" He blurted out.

"Brave Knight!" She cried in return, rushing to his bedside, her eyes welling with tears. " _My_ Brave Knight…" she cooed, her eyes softening as she wiped them dry. "So long has it been since last we set eyes upon one another…"

The knight seemed conflicted internally, as seen from his face and heard in his voice. "Fair Lady… Surely thou knowst of thine Father's intent? 'Twas not mere coincidence what placed me in these sheets, and 'twas not without prior motivation."

Both of her hands gripped one of his, being the one part of his arm unbound. "I do, I do! He wishes I should marry upon a suitor of his choosing, but such actions would betray mine own heart's true desire!" She said insistently, her eyes practically sparkling with determination. "The same desire which places me alongside you now, my dear knight…" she closed her eyes, placing her lips upon the top of her knight's palm.

The knight's eyes widened. "M-My Lady, please! To honour one as low as I in such a way is-!"

"-Only fitting. Thoust kissed my own hand many times, to not return such an act would be unjust." She finished for him, smiling softly, the bronze light from the bedside lantern painting her in a warm glow which only enhanced her beauty. Taking her hands away from his arm, the Fair Lady instead supported herself as she raised herself onto the bed, bringing her head closer to the knight's. "Perhaps… a kiss somewhere else might befit a similar act of repayment…?" The words sent a shiver of excitement down the knight's spine, his Lady's tone sultry and soft.

Both pairs of lips drew closer to one another. There was no stopping such an act now, not in his current state. As he felt his Lady's breath escape her gentle lips, he-

"My, my, my." A distorted voice interrupted. "Someone's having fun, I see." The voice shot out like a bolt from a crossbow, which collided with the world and sent it shattering into irreparable shards as though it were a stained glass window. Astaire's eyes bolted around rapidly as he pulled himself up from the floor, unsure of how he'd even wound up laid out in the first place. "Hello again."

"AAAGH!" A horrified yell was all Astaire could manage as his Shadow appeared from thin air behind him, sending him staggering back to regain both his balance and his composure. "You! You hateful fiend, I should've known this was all you!" He snarled angrily.

His Shadow retorted with a distorted scoff. "You think _I_ did all that?" He mockingly brought his fingers to his chest, looking hurt before his face immediately hardened again. "That sure would be convenient. Shame it's not true at all." He chuckled, revelling in the beet-red shade overtaking Astaire's face. Whether it was from embarrassment, or anger, or _both,_ was questionable.

Astaire slapped both hands on his cheeks and shook his head. Forget the dream, or whatever that whole debacle was, there were more pressing concerns. "That aside, what is it you're after now?! If you're going to keep pestering me every night, I demand to know!"

"You already know what I want, you thick-headed mongrel. Acceptance." An overly played-up sigh ruffled the edges of the black hood adorning the Shadow's head as he shrugged equally as dramatically. "I mean _really._ What a stubborn lout you're proving to be. I wasn't expecting a turnaround immediately or anything, but _gracious._ You have quite the talent for being exceptionally annoying."

"Annoying? _Me?"_ Astaire scoffed back. "Don't dare sit around forcefully invading my dreams every night, then come and have the _gall_ to call _me_ the more annoying out of this duo!" He snapped.

As calm and aloof as ever, his Shadow shrugged. "I've told you before, haven't I? I'm simply a part of you. In truth, we're not even really a duo at all!" He stopped to chortle, examining the way Astaire clenched his fists at his side. "You know how to get rid of me, don't you? It's not hard. Just do it." It couldn't be seen, but underneath his hood, Astaire's Shadow wore a toothy grin. "Admit to yourself that you take pleasure from fighting, killing, stealing and feigning innocence behind your mighty Lord of Sunlight. That's all."

A clear look of disgust crossed Astaire's face as he turned his back to the Shadow. "Disgusting. No upstanding Warrior of Sunlight would ever feel that way. Not about fighting, or stealing, or anything else!" Feeling at a loss, Astaire crossed his arms and tightly bunched the fabric of his coat up in his hands. Anything to dispel the frustration. "Besides, you said it yourself. There's been more than one of me in the past, I should hardly think I'm to blame."

"I said no such thing." The Shadow snapped. "Although you _are_ right all the same. Well done. Since you've solved yesterday's riddle, I suppose I'll need to make a new one."

"You could just as easily _not_ do that." Astaire said flatly.

His Shadow gave him the cold shoulder as he brought an armoured finger to his chin and stroked it, gazing up in thought. "...Ah-hah! I've got it!" Astaire felt himself be wrenched around by the shoulders, whereupon his Shadow grasped him face-first and looked him dead in the eye. "You've been through Lordran many a time, most certainly you have. But that's not your biggest problem. What you _should_ be asking yourself… is what happened _before_ then. _Before_ the Asylum."

As much as Astaire wished to take the high ground, tightening up and readying himself for an argumentative tirade, the question gave him pause.

What _had_ happened before the Asylum? Before the loops in time took hold? How had he gotten there? _Who_ got him there? Why did he keep returning to that one, single spot?

He didn't know. He simply did not know. But that was impossible, it had to be! He had to have been born somewhere, had to have a mother and father somewhere! His life didn't _begin_ in the Asylum, it couldn't have!

But that was as far back as his memories went. For all intents and purposes, that _was_ where his life began.

The thought rattled Astaire to his core. Terrified him more than he knew to put into words.

But his Shadow _couldn't_ know that. Indignantly, Astaire shoved his Shadow off himself and turned his nose up. "Hmph. Make as many silly little riddles as you want. I refuse to accept that you so much as resemble any part of me. You're wasting your time."

Another full-bellied, unhinged chuckle. "I've only got as much time as you do, so who'd _really_ be missing out, eh?" Astaire's Shadow laughed, He was asking for a right hook. He might even have gotten one, had Astaire thought it'd do anything. Instead, the best course of action would likely be to-

Pain gripped Astaire's head as he was clutched by the temples and made to face his Shadow again. His face looked dark and malevolent, looking Astaire himself dead in the eye.

" _If you aren't any further along come tomorrow, I'll show you what happens when I_ _ **do**_ _decide to mess with your dreams."_

And with that, the Shadow vanished.

* * *

A set of vibrations running up one side of Astaire's face served as his alarm clock, alongside the sun's glorious, eye-singing light streaming through the window. He flinched as one of Rise's feet landed in front of his face and whipped away as she danced around the room, picking up small bottles of multicoloured substances and the implements with which she slathered them onto her face. At Astaire's shifting his arms back into his sleeves from under his coat, he caught her attention. "Oh, morning! How did you sleep?"

Astaire opened his mouth to begin. He had to tell her. She and her friends were more experts on this Shadow nonsense than he was, it made all too much sense.

And yet…

" _Perhaps… a kiss somewhere else might-"_

Had Astaire shaken his head any more violently, he'd have torn the hairs from his head. No, no, _GODS_ no! He couldn't tell her about that, even if his Shadow _had_ made it up.

Which it _absolutely_ had. No doubt about it. It certainly hadn't been him, of course not. "A-Acceptably, I suppose." Astaire picked his words carefully between licking his lips. "My Shadow spoke to me again. Didn't say much different from last night, though. I wouldn't worry about it." He lied. Better _he_ be worried about the whole debacle than worry Rise with it. "Speaking of worrying, what exactly are you doing? You seem a tad anxious, if you don't mind me saying."

Rise had cast a serious look at Astaire at mention of his Shadow, though it failed to persist after that. "I might be, just a little bit. Mostly work stuff, that's all!" She went back to applying her sixteen different types of makeup a second. "Gotta look good for when we first head out! Not to toot my own horn, but I think the press is looking forward to seeing me."

"After yesterday, nothing would surprise me." Astaire commented as he got to his feet and stretched. Thoughts of the previous day's headlines briefly flashed about in his head. Knowing his luck, they'd be looking forward to Rise _and_ him, for reasons he chose not to dwell on. Luckily, his stomach growling provided just the diversion he needed. "Ah, food. I almost forgot. Have you eaten already?" He asked, hand on his stomach as it rumbled disagreeably.

Rise put down her several hundred beauty instruments - which, as far as Astaire could tell, hadn't changed much - and headed over to the table. "Not yet I haven't." She said as she took a seat. "C'mon, I made one for both of us."

Atop the table lay two plates, each bearing a simple omelette with a bead of red sauce in the middle. The smell was _divine._ So divine that Astaire hesitated to sit down for a moment. " _You_ made these? Really?" Rise nodded proudly. "...Are you sure it's alright for me to-"

"I said 'Cmon' didn't I? Stop being so rigid and sit down already!" Rise interrupted. At her command, Astaire did indeed take a seat. "Now go on, try a bite!" She said excitedly.

Without much reason to refuse, Astaire plopped a corner of the omelette into his mouth. There was a beat of silence before the rest of it disappeared in the blink of an eye with a hungry, bestial snarl. "Mmm! Positively delectable!" Astaire beamed from cheek to cheek.

" _Really?!"_ Rise leaned over the table in disbelief. Considering how well her last attempt at making an omelette had gone, she'd expected the worst. "I-I mean, of course! It's homemade, after all! All the best stuff is homemade!"

"I should think so, if this is anything to go by!" Unlike Nanako, who'd grinned through the diabolical spiciness for her sake, Astaire just _grinned._ If he'd left anything on the plate, he looked like he'd be licking it. "You are a wonderful cook indeed! I'd be honoured to eat this again!" His grin quickly scarpered as the omelette-induced euphoria began to wear off. "Th-That is, if you'd be so- if it wouldn't trouble you to-"

"Of course not!" Between her newly-reddened cheeks, Rise's eyes gleamed brightly. She'd finally done it! Someone had liked her cooking! She raised a fork and prepared to dig in, only to be halted by a high-pitched beeping coming from her phone. "Ohmigosh, is that the time?! We need to go!" She said, quickly running into the kitchen and packing her omelette in a sealed container, which quickly disappeared inside her bag. "C'mon Astaire-kun, we have a ride to catch!" She announced, swinging the door to the room open.

Rise braced for the cameras, the questions, the buzz of the crowd, and instead met…

...Nothing. Puzzled, she gazed at both ends of the hallway. Not a single reporter to be seen. Judging by the part-relieved, part-pleased look on Astaire's face as he slung his sword over his shoulder, it wasn't hard to imagine why. "Huh. Guess you're pretty good at this bodyguard stuff." She commented as she took off down the hall and called the elevator.

"I should hope so. Keeping one's charge safe is paramount to we Warriors of Sunlight. We rely as much on them as they rely on us for safety." He said, stepping inside - sword still in hand - and feeling his stomach lurch as the elevator shifted.

"Do you rely on me?" Rise asked, looking up with her head tilted.

"Of course I do." He nodded.

Rise raised an eyebrow. "How, though? I'm not as good a fighter as you or everyone else. I couldn't do what you all did in the… sort-of Abyss yesterday."

"Perhaps. But were it not for you, I very much doubt your friends would see me as they do now." He folded his arms and glanced away to the elevator's button panel. "I… appreciate your faith in me. Very much so."

His sheepish look coaxed a chuckle from Rise. "C'mon, don't act like it's that surprising. You kept me safe in the TV World and you kept all those reporters from getting too antsy. It… mightn't have been the _best_ way to handle it, but you handled it anyway. You seem pretty trustworthy to me."

Astaire's sheepish look faltered for a moment before it quickly resumed. "You didn't sound as convinced last night. About the souls and the pilfering and such…"

The doors slid open, leading the two to step out and into yet another silent corridor. "Well… yeah, I guess I can't deny that." Rise bit her lip and stared down at her feet. "But I've been thinking about it. Stuff like is pretty bad in this world, but it didn't happen in this world, right? You must've had a good reason back in your world, right?" She asked insistently.

Lying would only worsen the situation. Astaire rubbed his chin and, for the second time that morning, elected to choose his next few words carefully. "...Not a reason that was immediately apparent, anyway." Rise's quickly narrowing eyes kicked him into high gear. "Th-That is, one needs to be prepared for every eventuality! A sword and shield will only keep you alive for so long! Between sorcerers and giants and archers and all manner of other things, you never know what tools you may need! Why, if I hadn't taken all the cursed weapons I had, what might've become of us in the Abyss? What if-?"

Rise waved a hand, stopping Astaire in his tracks. "Alright, alright, I get it." She said exasperatedly. "It mightn't have been okay to do in the first place, but… it _did_ help us all out back there." She quickly stopped and hit Astaire with a gaze that could shatter stone. "But don't think that means you can do it again! It just means we were lucky! No more stealing stuff and no more… weird soul-weapon-making stuff, got it?!"

Astaire's hand rose quickly to his chest. "I swear it. No more pilfering and no more taking souls."

Rise's small smile seemed to indicate that his pledge was sufficient, and that was that.

The silence on the ground floor quickly began to fill as Rise and Astaire drew closer to the front door. The hushed yet audible sound of many people talking amongst themselves flooded in from outside. A crowd, then. _That_ was more like it. Rise pumped herself up internally and put on a winning smile as they both approached the hotel's entrance.

Or, as _one_ of them approached the entrance. "Hm? What the…?" One of Astaire's feet failed to rise as he found the opposite shoelace undone. Trapped under his foot. "Oh my, that could've been bad." He said to himself, kneeling down to tie it anew before he inevitably tripped and accidentally split someone in half with his Zweihander.

A short distance in front of him, the crowd roared as Rise stepped out of the building. Cameras flashed. Voices both male and female, young and old shouted her name at the top of their lungs. "Hi hi, everyone!" Rise grinned, waving ecstatically to the crowd, occasionally blowing kisses here and there. Getting back to work felt _good._

"Sorry, sorry! My shoe was untied, I had to-" Astaire began, jogging out of the door with his sword over his shoulder. As soon as he did, he received the exact opposite reaction to Rise. In a heartbeat, the cameras stopped. Nobody cheered, nobody shouted. The entire area fell dead silent, as though time had halted all at once. It was enough to throw even Astaire for a loop.

Noticing everyone's reaction, Rise shook her hands frantically. "I-it's alright! You can take pictures and stuff if you want! Really!" She emphasized her point by striking a cute pose, which immediately sent off the cameras again. The silence lifted slowly, but there were noticeably fewer voices than there had been.

A long black car on the road honked its horn as the driver tapped his watch, shooting Rise a serious look. "Aww! Looks like I have to go, everyone! Don't worry, we'll see you all later!" She hastily grabbed Astaire's sleeve and dragged him towards the car. "Won't we, Astaire-kun?"

"Uh- Oof!" Before he could pause for any longer, Rise had all but pushed him headlong into the car and quickly hopped in the other side. The doors closed to the sound of the crowd cheering, much to Rise's relief. At least recent events hadn't soured their images _that_ much.

The car, Astaire noted, seemed much like a black version of the Velvet Room on the inside. The fog which passed by the windows was replaced by scenery of all kinds. Throngs of people walking down streets, tall buildings and the occasional glimpse of the sea lay beyond the windows. Once in awhile his gaze would divert, focusing instead on Rise sitting next to him, madly typing out messages on her phone.

Only once Astaire thought to turn his head again did Rise speak. "Hey, about when we get here…" She started, flipping her phone's screen down. "You've gotta do exactly what I tell you to, okay? We can't afford to gather attention like we've done these past few nights, not here." She said, voice dripping with concern.

"Absolutely, you have my word." Rise's brow lowered as Astaire realised his sword was still resting along the length of the car. He smiled nervously as he hastily put it away. "Honestly! I shall follow your orders to the letter." He paused for a second, scratching his chin. "...That being said, should somebody make an attempt on your life…"

" _NO!"_ Rise yelled, all but sending Astaire's head through the roof in surprise. "Nothing's going to happen, believe me! I've worked here for so long that I know practically everyone in the building! Nobody's going to ' _make an attempt on my life'!"_ She said, gradually calming as she took in a deep breath. "...If someone was going to try something to me before, they won't do it now. Not with you here. So please, just take it easy for a day."

Admittedly, if anyone was going to know Rise's workplace well, it's be Rise herself. If she was sure, she was sure. Astaire tightly locked up the Bottomless Box, in faith that he wouldn't be needing it in a hurry. "Very well, Ms. Kujikawa. I shan't get in your way, I swear it."

"Good." Rise said softly, gazing out the window as Astaire did the same on his side.

The air was a stew of awkwardness and finality. An air that wouldn't lift until the car came to its destination.

* * *

A dramatic shift in scenery punctuated the end of the ride. Where once there had been crowds of people hustling and bustling to and fro in the streets, there now lay a singular, sizable building with chromed letters above the entrance. Try as he might, Astaire could make neither head nor tail of what they said. "That's the main building for my company, Takura Productions." Rise handily stepped in. "Usually we'd go in there for practice and other stuff, but today's a little different."

And how different it was. Takura Productions neighboured a guarded, high-walled lot of warehouse-esque buildings, each bearing a large number on one side. The scale was enough to make one feel incredibly small by comparison, not least because of the number of people running between the buildings, dwarfed by the shadows they cast.

"Inoue-san wants us to meet him over at Studio 4." Rise explained as she stepped out, shut the car door behind her and stretched her legs. "Don't worry about getting lost, I know this place like the back of my hand. Just follow me, 'kay?" She turned with a wink as Astaire quickly jogged to her side.

It didn't escape Astaire's notice that he was attracting no shortage of glares and glances, even without his sword. People glanced up from whatever occupied them, be it hauling equipment or checking thin electronic devices in their hands, and stared at him with a range of expressions, from suspicious to anxious. Then came Astaire's turn to stare as his eye caught someone pushing around a large rack of clothes on wheels. The clothes themselves were so bright that they threatened to blind him, and with more details sewn into them than Astaire thought could fit on normal clothes.

So occupied was he with his gawking that Astaire barely registered where he was walking until he thumped clumsily into the wall of Studio 4. His senses retrieved, he smiled sheepishly at the puzzled look Rise gave him as they entered a door marked with red letters - again, entirely and annoyingly illegible - and arrived at Studio 4's interior.

Any light in the massive room was focused on a large stage towards the back, set in front of a few rows of seats. Everything else, electronics and their operators alike, occupied the rest of the perimeter surrounding them both. Not that making them out was any flavour of easy. "Hey, there's Inoue-san over there! Let's go!" Rise said from somewhere within the darkness, dragging Astaire behind her by his sleeve.

One thing was made abundantly clear on the walk over. Whoever had decided the outer perimeter of the building needed to be kept dark was getting an earful later. To even call it a 'walk' was a stretch. 'Hopscotch' would've been a more accurate descriptor. "Oh Gods, sorry!" Astaire said, nearly tripping over a cobweb of cables at his feet. "Ah! I do apologise, really!" He continued as he bumped shoulders with something large and expensive looking, flitting between annoyed technicians who cursed under their breath at him.

Expert swordsmanship did not a tech manager make, it seemed.

One way or another, the other side of the studio was reached. "Ah, Rise-chan, there you are!" Inoue had been sitting at a small table holding his recently-emptied cup of coffee. "Good timing, we're just finishing preparations now. Come on backstage with me, will you?" He said, getting up and going before he could be given a proper reply.

Hurrah, more walking.

Many apologies later the trio arrived backstage, gloriously devoid of both cables and angry technicians, replaced instead with crates of every size and idle props littered around. There appeared to be two levels to the backstage area, the lower level leading out onto the stage proper. A set of steps tucked well out of sight of the audience led up to a higher level, a perfect square with a door at the back. As for what it was for, Astaire could only imagine.

"First things first, dress rehearsal. Gotta make sure you're prepared for the big show." Inoue said, examining his phone intently. "That'll be due in… twenty minutes. I'll meet you stage left." He concluded, nodding to Rise before running across to the other side of the stage.

In the meantime, Rise headed towards the single door on the higher level and gripped the handle, stopping to turn and face Astaire as he followed closely behind her. "Hey, you might wanna stay out here for a while, just saying."

Astaire tilted his head questioningly. "Why might that be? I assure you, whatever's beyond that door isn't beyond my capabilities. I can handle it."

A quick, barely noticeable smile flashed on Rise's lips as she turned away. "Well okay, if you want to see me change out of my clothes _that_ badly…" she said, barely containing a giggle.

"I'll stay and keep watch." Astaire quickly turned on a heel and stiffly strode back downstairs, his face a healthy shade of beetroot red.

* * *

It wasn't entirely clear to Astaire how long a minute was, but twenty of them was murder. He observed every possible hiding spot, entrance, exit, bottleneck, blind spot and possible ambush point, but found not a sinner to be seen. He felt himself become rife with boredom, crossing and uncrossing his arms listlessly and pondering what Rise might be up to.

Except undressing. Heavens, no.

...He needed something to do. This was _ludicrous._ Listlessness reaching a fever pitch, Astaire laid the Bottomless Box atop one of the crates he had been leaning on and flicked it open. He couldn't use his Zweihander, if he swung it even once he'd likely cave the floor in. No chance for Pyromancy or Miracles either, not in so enclosed a space.

Plunging a hand in, Astaire felt about for something, _anything_ to occupy his attention. It had to be small. Easily handled. Perhaps something he hadn't used before. Given how many unfamiliar feelings the tips of his fingers brushed past, he doubted _that_ would be hard, at least. At last, something seemed to click. A pair of Caesti, leather straps clean and steel balls glimmering under the light.

The complete antithesis of a Zweihander. Little reach and no personal experience wielding them. _Perfect_ for practice, in other words. Astaire slipped the leather straps over his hands and set to work. "No time like the present, I suppose." He mumbled to himself.

After a few minutes, the basics were down. Jab, don't swing. Strike at such an angle that the steel bearings are best made us of, simple stuff. A particularly unfortunate discarded mannequin served as Astaire's test dummy as he quite literally knocked the stuffing out of it. After exerting himself non-stop, Astaire hopped atop the crate the Bottomless Box lay upon, wiping his brow and trying to catch his breath.

Perhaps he'd been remiss to dismiss Fist weapons so quickly. Quick strikes and little recovery time would be the perfect sidearm for when the Zweihander proved too slow to be practical. Curious, Astaire lifted the box atop his knees and began another search for more fist weapons.

"Hm?" Something caught Astaire's eye. "Now, that might do. Come here, you-"

Suddenly, a monstrously loud torrent of music blasted out from the stage, nearly knocking Astaire off the crate entirely as he leapt in shock. His attention immediately shifted to meet the sight of Rise, backed up by three unfamiliar girls, beginning the rehearsal Inoue had mentioned.

Her outfit was much more… Astaire settled for _daring,_ than he remembered. Her cleavage was exposed, with pink and black thighhighs running up her legs to meet the loud pink skirt atop them. In the interest of modesty, Astaire felt obligated to turn away and avert his eyes.

However, something else quickly absorbed his attention. Something far more shocking that Rise's outfit.

"Gods above…" The music was _abysmal._ From the moment it had started to the beginning of Rise's dancing, alongside the other girls' singing- "Urk-! No…" Astaire heaved. It was dreadful. _Awful. DISASTROUS._ It felt like someone was trying to constantly funnel a deluge of sugar and syrup down his throat while shining a rainbow's worth of neon colouring in both eyes. Terrible. _TERRIBLE._

"Hey, are you alright?" An unfamiliar voice asked from behind. Astaire turned to face his questioner, perhaps a little too quickly to feign being alright. Before him stood a girl around Rise's height, looking up at him with bright brown eyes, laden with concern underneath the hood of her green hooded top. Had they been much lighter, they may have even passed for Rise's.

Acknowledging that Rise's performance was making him look homicidal, Astaire quickly straightened himself out and cleared his throat. "Y-Yes, yes. Just fine. Absolutely…" ...But goodness gracious, it really was _atrocious._ So much so that the music poked holes in Astaire's concentration and derailed his train of thought.

"Oh, I see. You're not a fan, are you?" The hooded girl asked, cocking her head.

"What? No, I-I mean, yes! I _am_ a fan! Of Ms. Kujikawa, that is!" ...He turned again post-stammer, feeling strangely drawn to the display in spite of his revulsion. "...I could do without the dancing and the music, however." He admitted.

The girl hummed thoughtfully and plopped up beside Astaire on an adjacent crate. "That's funny, I thought _everybody_ knew about Rise-senpai! She's _really_ popular right now, you can hardly turn your head in the city without seeing her _somewhere!"_ She grinned cheerily, swinging her legs. "I mean, what else did you _think_ she'd be doing?"

"I'm not sure, but I doubt this would've crossed my mind any time soon." Astaire admitted, tapping his foot off the floor in an attempt to bottle his revulsion up _somewhere._ His eyes briefly flashed between the stage and the hooded girl, until he finally realised how rude he was being. "Oh! Pardon my manners, I'm Knight Astaire, Ms. Kujikawa's bodyguard. " He said, holding out a hand to his new acquaintance.

She giggled as she shook it. "Manners, shmanners! Besides, I'm pretty sure lots of people around here already know who you are, Astaire-kun." She said with a wink. Oh. Right. That accursed newspaper. "But it's still nice to meet you. I'm Kanami Mashita, but you can call me Kanamin if you want to!" She grinned widely, peering around Astaire post-introduction to see the rehearsal taking place.

Not that Astaire could fathom why she'd want to, save for painful fascination. "You called her… Rise-senpai, was it? I take it you're familiar with her, then?"

Kanami rocked in place, limbs flailing dramatically as she nearly fell off her crate." _What?!_ First you don't know about Rise-senpai's work and now you don't know _me_ either?!" She calmed down and placed a finger to her lips, gazing toward the ceiling. "Hmmm. I wonder if Rise-senpai has a rock in her room that she lets you live under…?"

"Beg pardon?"

"Never mind." Kanami waved dismissively. "I guess you really _don't_ know, huh? I'm an idol, just like Rise-senpai is! She's a little older than me, though, so I've gotta work extra hard to catch up to her! I just _have_ to!"

Idols? Was that what everything was in service of? The reason Rise dressed so flashily, the reason the music was so sickening upbeat and cutesy, the reason-

Wait a minute.

' _I'm an idol, just like Rise-senpai is.'_

"Oh! So you mean you…" Astaire looked back and forth between Kanami and the stage, in time with his finger pointing between them. Kanami nodded, bringing his hands and head to a halt as he bowed one and clasped the others together. "I-I'm so sorry! Truly, I am! Had I known you performed in the same manner I wouldn't have-!"

Kanami laughed and offered another dismissive wave. "It's fine, it's fine! Music's one of those things that's really subjective, if it's not for you, it's not for you!" She said before raising an eyebrow. "But the dancing? I hear complaints all the time, but I've never heard of anyone who _didn't_ like Rise-senpai's dancing. What don't you like about it?"

Arms crossed, one of Astaire's fingers drummed off his upper arm to fill the prolonged silence.. "...It's difficult to put into words, I think. It's like a sort of… urge, or some kind of gut feeling within me. There's something about the whole thing that just isn't my cup of tea. I just wish I could say what it was." He finally said, biting his bottom lip in thought.

His lack of a concrete explanation only seemed to drawn Kanami in closer, looking ever more invested. "So what kind of dancing _do_ you like? Maybe that could help explain it!" She brought a thumb to her mouth and chewed lightly on the nail. "Hmmm. Headbanging is the furthest thing from Idol dancing I can think of, do you like headbanging?"

Astaire looked at her like she'd just grown a second head.

"Okay, so you don't like headbanging, got it. What _do_ you like, then?"

Another prolonged silence, punctuated with the tapping of Astaire's feet and a thoughtful, drawn-out hum. "...I'm afraid I don't know what type of dancing I like either." He answered defeatedly as he scratched the back of his head. The closest thing to dancing Lordran offered was Seath's channelers, and somehow he figured they wouldn't quite count. "I'm sorry, I'm not making all that much sense, am I?"

Meeting her head on again, Astaire felt his heart leap as Kanami's eyes welled with tears, her bottom lip aquiver. "Someone who can't remember what music they like, or what dancing they like?! That's _so sad!"_ She wailed, loud enough to even overpower the riotous rehearsal off to the side. "Music is the lifeblood of… well, _life!_ Life without music isn't any kind of life at all!"

In his head, Astaire's brain flatlined, unable to process a response. That was, until Kanami hopped off the crate and latched onto his coat viciously. "M-Ms. Mashita?"

"Come with me. Right freaking now." Gone were her tears, replaced instead with a look that could've chiseled rock. It didn't take much convincing before Astaire hopped off the crate as well, getting dragged off towards, and up, the stairs. "If you can't remember what kind of music and dancing you like, we're gonna have to find out! We just _have_ to!"

A large set of curtains obscured both the immediate right and left of the wide, square floorspace. Curtains which Kanami disappeared under before coming back with a tall stool and a large stereo, which she placed off to the side before plugging her phone in with a small cable. "Er… Pray tell, what exactly are you doing?" Astaire asked.

"Choosing a song, duh! I'm gonna set us up on shuffle and we're gonna figure out what kind of stuff you're into! Easy peasy!" With a singular tap on the screen, Kanami made a satisfied expression, set her phone on the stool, and proceeded to strut into the center of the elevated area, beside Astaire. "Alright, let's give this a try, shall we?"

Gradually, the rhythm of the song began bobbing Kanami's head up and down in time, soon spreading to the rest of her body as well. "What exactly are you doing?" Asked a bewildered Astaire.

"Getting into the rhythm, of course! Just follow my lead, I'll show you how to cut some shapes!" She boasted, breaking into full swing and showing off her dancing. A warrior first and a dancer never, it was all Astaire could do you clumsily try and imitate her, inevitably failing miserably and tripped over his own feet more than once. "Alright, alright, stop. Maybe that was a little much for a beginner, we'll try something else."

Astaire panted deeply, hands on his hips. Dancing _really_ took one's energy away, it seemed. "Like what?"

No sooner had he asked, Astaire found his hands torn away from his hips, placed instead in one of Kanami's hands and one her waist. "Ever tried waltzing?" She asked with a smile.

Normally, any red-blooded male would likely have bled so forcefully from the nose that they'd have rocketed into the sun, never to return to Earth again.

Well, maybe not _exactly_ like that, but Kanami pictured it going pretty similarly.

"I can't say I have." Astaire replied flatly, nose notably un-bloodied and trajectory distinctly non-sunward.

Well, that was underwhelming. Kanami shrugged it off and freed a hand to reach out to her phone. "Don't worry, you'll have me helping you directly this time, so everything's gonna be just fine!" She assured him, flicking through her sizable array of music. It'd need to be something slow and easy to handle. Sadly, without easy access to her sixteen other SD cards full of music, classical was out the window. Kanami hummed thoughtfully before finally settling on something.

The guitar and flutes accompanied Kanami's hasty explanation of waltzing to Astaire. Given that it was slower, that the two were connected and that Kanami was rather adept at explanations, even Astaire's leaden feet began to catch on over time.

Yet something nagged at him. "You're a rather good teacher, Ms. Mashita. I only wish I knew why you were going through all the trouble"

"I told you, didn't I? Music is one of the greatest things about being alive. It can convey thoughts, feelings and stories without even using a single word. It can connect people, no matter how distant they may have been before. It can bring people together, or provide comfort when they're torn apart. It doesn't matter what the situation is, music can portray it down to the finest detail, as clear as crystal. Not experiencing music, or the dancing it creates, is absolutely criminal!"

Astaire blinked and shook his head in the face of Kanami's shining, passionate eyes. "That… was a tad more dramatic than I was anticipating."

"Call me a girl who just _really_ likes her music." She shrugged and smiled.

"Enough to where you'll dance with someone you've only just met?"

"To a song that's not even meant for waltzing? Sure will!" Kanami laughed wholeheartedly. Admittedly, her energy was proving to be infectious, as Astaire soon found his lips curling up to match. "The song's 'Stairway to Heaven' by the way. It's not a waltz, but it'll do in a pinch. Isn't it nice?"

"Yes, it is. Very." Astaire nodded. He brought his hand away from Kanami's waist and instead placed it on her shoulder. "Thank you for all this, but I really should get back to my post. Without me there's nobody to protect Ms. Kujikawa directly."

Sighing contently, Kanami released her grip on his hand and stopped the music. "Yeah yeah, I suppose. But hey! If you ever get bored of punching mannequins, and I get bored of reading scripts and practicing choreography, feel free to hit me up again later!" She beamed as she began walking off.

Nodding in affirmation as she disappeared through the doorway at the back, Astaire headed back for his prior position. The stage had quieted down immensely, meaning Astaire could finally hear himself think once again. However, that wasn't all he could hear.

"Oh man, these are great! How much do you think these'll sell for?"

A voice.

"Couple thousand a pop, I'd guess. Imagine the friggin' headlines you could put out with the right spin on this!"

No, _two_ voices. From below him, at the base of the stairs.

"Dunno about you, but I smell a bestseller! People hate this guy enough as is, think what a possible idol-slash-bodyguard love triangle would do to 'em!"

_A what-slash-what?!_

"Smells like a goddamn payday to me! Lemme get a few of Risette on stage before we push out, just for that little extra kick!"

The excited chatter of both voices was immediately halted as Astaire cleared the guardrails of the upper platform and landed before them with a loud thud. He whipped around to meet the source of the voices, two shady-looking men holding expensive-looking cameras. So shocked by his entrance were they that the one on the left dropped what he'd been holding. A handful of polaroids, showing Astaire and Kanami dancing.

They'd taken pictures.

They'd been talking about selling them to someone.

_They'd been talking about a love triangle._

Out came the caesti from Astaire's coat. "You're not supposed to be here, are you?" He growled more than asked. Just as the leather straps were tightened, a violent surge of electricity drove into Astaire's chest, courtesy of the rightmost cameraman's stun gun.

To a normal human, such a shock would've brought them to their knees, if not worse. But after being impaled by Dragonslayer Ornstein and having the power of pure lightning run through him, Astaire barely even flinched.

One fist sent the stun gun clattering to the floor. The other drove into his assailant's jaw with a loud crack. He clutched his head in pain as he spat out a bloody tooth, bumping into his partner behind him, who was weighing his options. Either run out on stage and have studio security kick them both out, or risk dodging past Astaire to the exit.

One thing was certain, whatever studio security would do to him, it'd be a cakewalk compared to the guy who'd shrugged off a stun gun like it wasn't even there. Fearing for his life, the second cameraman sprinted onto the stage. The audience of choreographers, directors and technicians all jumped out of their seats at once, barking orders at the security detail .

Rise's eyes widened as the second cameraman approached. Not because of him, but because of the roaring, unfathomably angry visage of Astaire that came sprinting behind him, face like that of a demon. " _Get away from her!"_ He bellowed before tackling the cameraman from behind, rolling him onto his chest and pummeling him in the face without hesitation. His jaw broke and his face bled from the innumerable cuts left by the caesti's vicious strikes. Only when he was knocked out completely did Astaire stop hitting him.

" _BASTARD!"_ The voice of the other cameraman came from behind. He'd grabbed a stool from backstage and had begun charging, aiming for Astaire. He didn't even have time to flinch before Astaire got to his feet and plowed his fist into his face, knocking the stool from the cameraman's grip and breaking his nose all at once. Blood cascaded down his face as he brought his hands up to stem the tide, looking up at Astaire pleadingly. "L-Look, man! We jus-"

The cameraman was interrupted as Astaire gave him a left hook, destroying what little consciousness he'd held onto. He impacted off the stage with a thud, laid out next to his partner in an equally bloody mess.

Astaire panted heavily, caesti reddened with blood, small spatters coating his face, coat and body. He gazed at his hands, eyes wide as he uttered a single word. "Wow."

Catching himself on, he turned to Rise, an _'are you alright'_ on the tip of his tongue. But one look at her said all he needed to know. Her eyes bulged out of their sockets, her pupils contracted and her hands raised to her mouth in shock. Tears welled up not only on her eyes, but the eyes of her dancing crew as well. The longer Astaire looked at her, the deeper he felt his heart sink.

Someone from the audience yelled something about taking a break for an hour or two, encouraging everyone else to willingly scarper, Rise included. She took off backstage, her face buried in her hands. His concern outweighing his common sense, Astaire took after her.

Rise passed the fallen polaroids entirely before Astaire swiped them up and pocketed them, quickly resuming his chase upstairs. Prior warnings be damned, he followed her through the door at the back and into the corridor of doors beyond. "Ms. Kujikawa, wait!" Astaire called out, barely catching the door Rise ducked into before it could close. "Ms. Kujikawa, I-"

The sentence was cut short as Rise's palm met Astaire's face, the sound of the slap she gave him so loud it could have woken the dead. Foolishly, he dared to look her in the eye, her expression enough to break both his heart and his spirit. He'd never seen someone so angry and sad at the same time before. _"YOU COULD HAVE BEATEN THOSE TWO TO DEATH!"_ Rise screamed, far beyond the point of caring who heard her. She took off the headset she was wearing and flung it at Astaire's chest. "And what did you have to say about it? _Wow?!_ Like you were _impressed_ with yourself?!"

Astaire clenched a fist at his side. "He was running directly at you. I had to do something."

"You didn't know he was going to do anything to me! From where I was standing, it looked like he was only running to get away from _you!"_

"His partner hit me with some kind of electric weapon, and then he tried attacking me again afterwards! What was I supposed to think?!" Astaire insisted, unable to resist raising his voice.

"That doesn't mean he had one too! If he did, don't you think he'd have used it before you tackled him?!" Rise raised her voice in turn.

"I can't afford to take chances like that! He was in a prime position to endanger your life, I had no choice _but_ to act!" Astaire bellowed even louder, the argument quickly escalating into a yelling match.

" _That doesn't excuse turning them both into bloody red smears on the floor!"_

" _Are you saying I_ shouldn't _do my job, then?! That I should just sit by and_ let _you get attacked?!"_

" _IF THIS IS HOW YOU HANDLE THINGS, YES!"_ Rise screamed at the top of her lungs.

At that, Astaire met his match. He felt like he'd been punched in the gut as his energy left him. Either do his job the way he'd always done it, or not do it at all. He opened his mouth, but no response formed. He shut it again, thoroughly defeated.

Rise's face was red with anger, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Just… leave me alone. Get out of here."

Without another word, Astaire nodded and exited the room, gently shutting the door behind him.

It was a wonder that their arguing hadn't attracted a crowd outside. Then again, perhaps the noise had let everyone know better.

Aimless, Astaire exited the hallway and sat himself down on the crate he'd occupied beforehand. He detached the Bottomless Box from within his coat and lay it next to him, eyeing its weathered surfaces idly and wondering how he could make the situation right.

He looked down at his blood-covered hands and coat, wondering further if it was possible to set things right at all.

 

* * *

 

 

EDIT: I've decided to include links to any music I reference for the purposes of context. In the unlikely event you've never heard Stairway to Heaven:

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I wrote this chapter, Dancing All Night hadn't come out yet, so Kanami didn't have any semblance of a character. She just kind of existed.  
> With that in mind, I decided to put my own spin on her without anything to go off.  
> After DAN came out I decided to come back and rework things a little, but she didn't start off as her DAN self, so I decided to keep her the way I had in mind.  
> Call me biased but I kind of like her as a bubbly little music geek.  
> 


	8. Conflicts of Interest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A resolution, an overly calm coworker, and school, of a sort.

Astaire looked on with a taut brow in the direction of the janitor cleaning up the mess. The stage went from being the scarlet-stained scene of a brutal assault to sparkling clean in no time, as though nothing had happened at all. The men he'd knocked out had been carried away by medical staff, carting them off to who-knows-where. Staring out and replaying the event In his head, a deep and profound conflict stirred as he thought about his actions.

Fighting was his forte, as he saw it, though in truth it was more _killing_ than fighting. There were no non-lethal approaches in Lordran, not even with those who still held their sanity. Make a wrong move once and they'd have it out for you forever. It was the sort of environment that had left Astaire with the tools and the methods to completely empty the entirety of Lordran, given the time. Not that it'd do him much good now, given that acting in his usual manner had gotten him into this mess.

He sighed to himself for what must've been the fifth time within minutes as he mulled over what to do in his head. Obviously he'd need to apologise for yelling at Rise first. That'd be fun. As for whether or not to apologise for bludgeoning the two men into respective pulps, he wasn't sure. What was the alternative, risk them getting away? Risk having one of them harm Rise?

As he had taken a tendency of doing, Astaire flipped open the Bottomless Box and began rummaging through it. If he couldn't stop himself fighting, he'd just have to stop himself from hurting people as badly as he did. Surely there had to be something in here which would help him save face while saving other people's faces.

Yet as he continued taking inventory, his hopes of finding a way around his violent habits dimmed every second. After all, if he'd punched someone to within an inch of their lives with naught but a pair of caesti, what would a Greathammer do to them? He tried not to think about it as he kept searching.

Finally, Astaire shut the box in frustration. He'd considered a few options, such as using wooden bolts with a crossbow instead of any metal variants, but he'd found that they were unreliable as ammunition. A whip might have been a good idea, had he not needed to use it on the move. Articulating it while standing still was fine, but if he had to chase someone down again, that was another story.

A few fleeting thoughts had crossed his mind, but he'd found reason to give up on each of them. For the first time in quite a while, Knight Astaire was woefully underprepared.

He shoved his hands in his pockets, his left brushing against the polaroids of him and Kanami. Lacking anything else to do, Astaire chose to flick through them, thinking partly of the men who were taking them, and the press in general. "Don't let them think you're my boyfriend." Had been Rise's first order upon seeing them, and it'd stuck in Astaire's head.

For another fifteen minutes, he sat on watch for any more photographers or people he had to not brutally disfigure. Thankfully, the only one to show up was someone he already knew not to hurt. "Oh, uh, hey- hello, Astaire-san." Inoue stammered, looking much more flustered than he'd done earlier. Whether it was due to his work, Astaire's work, or both was uncertain. "Good job, y'know, with that whole thing." He said, motioning to the stage with his head.

"I'm not sure "good" is the word I'd use." He replied with a sigh. "Do you think what I did was right, Mr. Inoue?"

Caught off by the question, Inoue leaned against the crate adjacent to Astaire's, taking out a small box with his lunch in it as he pondered how to reply. "Well, I wouldn't say that exactly. It's never right to hurt people, especially that badly." Off to a great start, evidently. "Not to mention the implications this could have might make things a little… difficult for someone. Might be me, might be someone else." He paused, taking a bite of sausage from his bento box. "I guess we'll find out soon enough."

"What else was I supposed to do? Let him run out on stage and harm Ms. Kujikawa?"

"You don't know he was going to do that though, right?"

Astaire's brow creased slightly as deja vu swept over him. "Better safe than sorry. I had to do something about their trespassing, if nothing else."

"Look." Inoue began, propping himself off the crate and pointing his chopsticks towards Astaire. "I'm not going to argue that apprehending them was the right thing to do. It's just the way you did it that most people would take issue with. You beat those guys senseless."

"Beating people senseless is about all I'm good at, I'm afraid." The knight said, examining the greathammer he'd retrieved from the box. Inoue noticed him weighing it up with his hands on the hilt, almost choking as he lifted it up off the ground without issue. It looked like it weighed a tonne, with the creaking floorboards underneath it a testament to that.

Inoue gulped. It was a wonder there was anything left of the two photographers to throw out. "Well, you'll need to shift that habit, and fast. If you thought the tabloids about you were bad before, just wait until this gets out." He said, internally feeling a bit ill as he contemplated the amount of work he'd have to do to make up for this.

However, the reaction he'd coaxed out of Astaire was unexpected. He raised an eyebrow as he turned to face him. "Why? What do you think they'll be saying?"

Puzzled by his lack of deflation and disappointment, Inoue elaborated. "Oh, I don't know. I imagine it'll be something along the line of "Psycho bodyguard brutalises press on stage at Risette's rehearsal?!" or something to that effect." He said, gesturing with his chopsticks.

A very rapid train of thought seemed to be leaving the station, if Astaire's face was anything to go by. "Say, just out of curiosity, what would be worse?" He began, his hands brushing the photographs in his pocket. "Me brutalising two intruders, or rumours of a love triangle involving Ms. Kujikawa, myself and someone else?"

Thoroughly puzzled once more, Inoue stopped to take in what he'd just been asked. "That's an… oddly specific situation you're comparing that to. But from a press standpoint? I guess the love triangle. Idols have been kicked out of the business for less."

Astaire sighed lightly as Inoue spoke. "Good. That's a relief" He said. "I'll still need to apologise to Ms. Kujikawa, though. I shan't feel right facing her until I do."

Just about done with his food, Inoue tidied himself up and stood up straight once again. "Whatever you do, you'd better do it quick. This sort of thing makes work a living hell, know what I mean? Anyway, there's another rehearsal starting soon, I'd best be going. Later." Inoue said with a small wave, running up towards the dressing rooms.

Brilliant. More awful music to listen to in the meantime. All the same, little could stem the small feeling of relief Astaire felt well up in his chest.

* * *

"Oh, darn it! Now my eyes are all puffy!" Rise said quietly to herself, reaching for the eye cream in her cabinet. On top of everything else, the tears had displaced some of her makeup. Things just got better and better, it seemed. She was going to need help with this. One speed dial later and Rise's stylist, Ms. Mori, was helping repair the damage. Obviously there was the slight matter of explaining why she'd been crying in the first place, which gave the two something to talk about as Mori worked.

All manner of powders and instruments were applied before Rise was looking right again. She was pretty enough without makeup, but she was far from it with badly-damaged makeup. "There we go, good as new! What do you think?" Mori asked, smiling.

"Yeah, it's great. Thank you, Mori-san." Rise replied halfheartedly.

Rise's uncharacteristic lack of enthusiasm caught Mori's attention. "What's the matter? Are you feeling okay?"

Usually Rise enjoyed her work, hence why she'd returned after hiatus. Seeing her now was a far cry from how she usually was. "It's just _him_ , you know?! What was he thinking, going off like that? He isn't even sorry for it!" She yelled all at once, nearly on the verge of tears again. "I'm… I'm scared that he'll do it again. That maybe he might actually kill someone."

Sensing her concern, Mori placed her hands on her shoulders. "Look, maybe you just need to talk things over with him. From the sounds of it, I don't think he'd refuse whatever you ask of him." She put her hands on her hips and stared at Rise via the mirror in front of her. "Just walk right up and say to him, "Stop hurting people, I as your Queen demand it!""

Her dramatic flair made Rise stifle a laugh. "Well, I don't think that's _exactly_ how I'd put it." She said with a small smile. "But do you really think it'd be that easy?"

Mori nodded. "Sure! You're gonna have to talk to him eventually, right? You might as well get it over with sooner rather than later, or you both might regret it."

Rise seemed to find Mori's enthusiasm rather infectious as she picked herself up from her chair, determination to set things right filling her chest. "You're right! I'll go talk to him right now, thanks, Mori-san!" She said as she rushed out the door. As though guided by radar, she headed towards stage right. There was little doubt in her mind that Astaire would be there, given how averse he was to parting with her in the first place.

At least, that's what Rise hoped. In truth, she wasn't sure what he'd be thinking, nor how he'd react after stewing over what happened for all this time. The further towards the backstage door she got, the more she felt her chest tighten in anxiety. As she reached out and held the door handle, she took a deep breath to calm herself. There was no need to make this any more difficult than it had to be.

Just as she'd suspected, Astaire was still outside. He was leaning on the guardrail beside the stairs, glancing over towards the stage while also scanning the area below him.

Perhaps it was best to approach this casually and try not to make a bigger scene than last time. Stepping over as carefully as she could, as though trying not to rouse a sleeping beast, Rise made her way over and placed her arms on the banister in a similar fashion. However, she forgot the part where she was supposed to say something to break the tension, leaving the two in an awkward silence.

Though both parties found putting their thoughts into words difficult, somebody had to say something. "Do you enjoy hurting other people?" Rise finally asked. She felt a weight take form in her chest as she anticipated Astaire's answer, fearing he'd be honest and say "Yes."

"No." The knight said simply. "We Warriors of Sunlight are dedicated to protecting and assisting others. We do not shy away from combat, but we do not actively seek it." He explained, his eyes glued to the floor. "However, it is oft all too easy to forget I no longer abide by Lordran's rules. My methods of dealing with threats are practically ingrained into my soul. They're not exactly easy to give up."

Come to think of it, nobody really knew _how_ long Astaire had been in Lordran, not even himself. For all anybody knew, he'd been fighting the same battles for hundreds of years without end. It was easy enough to theorise that he recalled modern activities from muscle memory, but it was even easier to suggest that Lordran, and the behaviours within it, had done the same on a much grander scale.

In spite of these thoughts, Rise was firm. "Whatever the case, you need to know how to control yourself. If those two had died today…"

It didn't bear worth thinking about. The words failed to escape from Rise's mouth as she trailed off.

All the while, Astaire's head hung low and his eyes glued themselves to the floor. "I've been pondering what Yosuke said about me ruining your life. As much as it pains me to admit it, I fear he may be closer to the mark than I'm comfortable with."

Seeing the stalwart fellow berate himself in such a way was rather difficult to bear, Rise found. It couldn't be easy knowing, or at least thinking, that you were the sole cause of misery in someone's life. "However…" Astaire picked up, reaching into his pocket and holding its contents out to Rise. "...I feel as though the consequences of my misdeeds should rest on my shoulders alone, not yours."

She took the photos, scanning them carefully as she flicked through them all. She made a mental note to question her kouhai as to what exactly she thought she was playing at before deciding to dance with her bodyguard. From the angle at which they were taken, it was obvious they'd been snapped from the staircase. Apparently, taking photos of the two dancing had apparently been more interesting than Rise's never-before-seen concert.

Seeing as her kouhai wasn't around to interrogate, she settled for the second best line of approach. "Why exactly were you two dancing together in the first place?"

"I'll be honest with you." Astaire began, taking a deep breath before he dared say anything. "That music was bloody awful." The response was almost so blunt that Rise almost questioned whether Astaire had been the one saying it at all. "The stage was bright, loud, flashy and obtrusive. The costumes look like insulting, overly cutesy rubbish and the dancing was… I'm not even sure what it was. But I know I didn't like it." He finished.

As his charge began to narrow her eyes at him, Astaire's hands flew up. "L-Look, I don't know why! If I could choose to enjoy it I would, but something about this whole song and dance just really, _REALLY_ riles me up down inside! It's nothing to do with you personally, it's the whole idea of it all!"

Rise could have said something. Truth be told, she still kind of felt like saying something. Then again, it was pretty clear that Astaire wasn't hating on her as much as the whole idol thing itself. It seemed there really was no accounting for taste. She put her words aside for now. "...How is this related to Kanami, exactly?"

A few blinks and a pause preceded Astaire's jolt back to reality. "Right, right! Anyway, Ms. Mashita drummed up a conversation with me and asked why I wasn't enjoying the show, but I couldn't really elucidate on the matter very well. She figured that I might get a better idea of why I didn't like the music and the dancing if she showed me some other types instead. I didn't think she'd rope me into it as well, though…" He trailed off, thinking on the matter further as he watched Rise flick through the photos. "...It's my own fault for stepping away and allowing them in, really. I suppose it's a punishment for my carelessness."

For some reason, the detail which stuck out the most in the pictures was how close Astaire and Kanami were, waltzing hand-in-hand and looking each other in the eye. As much as she tried to shake it out of her head, Rise couldn't let it go. "So… this is why you beat those guys up?" She eyed Astaire suspiciously, so intensely that he turned his head just in time to immediately regret doing so.

Sensing what she was getting at, Astaire shook his hands in denial. "N-no! No, no, no, that's not it at all! We only just met a few minutes ago, of course not!" He failed to notice that Rise's glare was boring larger and larger holes into his head with each passing second. Finally, he sighed and slowed down. "I'm not sure why, but those people with cameras seem to be obsessed with you and I, especially if we're… together." He gulped as he tried not to imagine the implications. "So, I figured that they might try to use those pictures to spin some farcical tale together about you, Ms. Mashita and I!"

There was no denying that. Rise knew all too well that the press was ready to look for any little detail that might suggest the two were an item and create some sort of scandal. Adding Kanami into the mix would only worsen things. "So wait, you…?"

"I didn't know what they'd make of it all. They were planning to sell them to someone, but that's all I know." Astaire cocked his head to one side as he spoke. "If they got away with those pictures, there's no telling what exactly could come about from it." He cocked his head to the other side. "However, as things stand now, I think I could somewhat accurately guess what they'll focus on when it comes to printing more newspapers." He said, jabbing a thumb to his chest. "I'm sure it'd be clear to anyone out there that you didn't tell me to do anything. The fault lies with me."

With his train of thought and his motivations more clearly laid out, Rise wasn't exactly feeling how she thought she would at the end of the explanation. The tabloids could be vicious, to extents that Astaire could barely comprehend, and yet he'd willingly stepped into the line of fire for not only her sake, but for Kanami's as well, who he'd barely known for a few minutes.

"I mean, anybody would do the same, I think." Astaire said, much quieter than when he'd started talking. "I got a little carried away, but he was running at you after his partner shocked me, and I wasn't sure what he'd..." He dragged off, looking rather uncomfortable at bringing the whole affair up again. "...I was worried. I don't think I could forgive myself if I let something happen to you." The knight turned away, averting his gaze. "That's why I beat them as much as I did."

Tears began welling up in Rise's eyes as she loosened her grip on the photos, stepped forward and wrapped her arms tightly around Astaire's waist. Needless to say the knight himself turned beetroot red as she did. "You're a real big piece of work, you know that?" Her words came through barely-contained sniffs as she tried her best not to cry.

It was hard not to get swept up in all the little things in Rise's hug. The way her heartbeat knocked lightly against her chest onto Astaire's, the smell of her hair and perfume; All of them in unison was enough to send his heart racing. Nonetheless, Astaire slowly raised his arms, hesitated for a moment or two, then finally settled for lightly pulling her in closer. "I suppose I am."

The two sat like this for a while, with Astaire making sure to maniacally scan the surroundings for more intruding paparazzi, lest this whole incident repeat itself. Eventually they released each other, with Astaire surprised to notice that Rise's face was also sporting a healthy red glow much like his own. Then again, she _had_ been crying, it was likely something to do with that. Just as he began to relax, a finger was pointed at Astaire's face. "You've gotta promise me, okay? No more beating people up unless there's absolutely, positively, inescapably no other way out, got it?!"

Her demand was so sharp a change from her previous rosy-cheeked demeanour that Astaire visibly jumped in shock. "Y-Yes Ms. Kujikawa! Absolutely!" He quickly stiffened his back and stood up straight as he spoke, much like a disciplined soldier.

Likewise, Astaire's shift from worried to relieved and finally to fright was much too sudden and funny for Rise to not crack a smile as a result. She laughed to herself as the knight deflated in relief once again. As she wiped a small tear from the corner of her eye, she looked Astaire in his. "I'm sorry I slapped you and yelled at you."

"Not at all. I apologise for doing… _that_ in front of you and everyone else." He thumped his fist to his heart and continued, "I'll try and find a better way of dealing with these things in the future, I assure you."

Rise smiled. "Well, in any case, I'm glad this is all taken care of." She said, reaching down and picking a photograph off the floor. "We'd better hide these somewhere before somebody sees them." The duo hastily gathered the photos up and tossed them into the Bottomless Box, where nobody but Astaire would be able to find them.

"So… I imagine you'll be continuing the show, then." Astaire said a little more disdainfully than he intended.

However, the look on Rise's face as she looked out at the stage seemed to say otherwise. "I wouldn't be too sure of that. You beating those guys up wasn't exactly on today's schedule." She looked at her watch and began backing off towards the dressing room doors again. "Look, I'll go see what Inoue says and get back to you, okay?"

"Very well. I shall keep watch properly this time." Astaire replied with a nod. Seeming content with his answer, Rise disappeared backstage once again, feeling a lump in her throat as she went. The moment she left, Astaire bounded over the guardrail, foregoing the stairs once again before he whipped out his Zweihander and let it sit on his shoulder. Nobody was coming near this area again if they knew what was good for them.

* * *

For a few scant moments, Astaire considered heading after Rise, given how long she was taking. How far away could Inoue possibly have gone in such a short length of time? If nothing else, surely Rise of all people would have his phone number, right? His thoughts compounding inside his head, Astaire managed to momentarily distract himself as he halted the impatient tapping of his foot on the floor.

As inviting as peering ever further into the inky depths of the Bottomless Box was, Astaire remained steadfast. "Knowing my luck," he thought, "the moment I avert my gaze, something will happen. I just know it." Yet in spite of this, he still found himself getting increasingly antsy as time went by.

He peered out to the stage, checking nobody was on it, nor on stage left. He poked his head up over the staircase, ensuring nobody was above him. He gazed down the walkway Rise and he had come in by, seeing naught but technical assistants going about their duties with the machines littered around them. Finally, he darted over to the staircase to his right, which was situated snugly against the wall. It seemed to lead down to a set of red doors with daylight filtering through them, but nothing else.

An empty stage, an empty stage left, an empty walkway and an empty fire exit. In the time he'd taken to make his checks, Astaire could've rifled through his box multiple times by now.

...Surely one peek couldn't hurt, right?

Unbuttoning the middle few buttons on his coat, Astaire flipped the lock on the box and began fumbling around. He felt the handle of his Zweihander, ever familiar, floating beside some chunks of Titanite. It seemed that the deeper he reached into the box, the more unfamiliar things he began to find, things he didn't remember picking up. "Chances are I might find some clue as to who I was in a prior cycle if I look deeply enough." Astaire told himself.

"Wait a minute, that doesn't feel right." Amongst the many familiar objects, Astaire's hand finally stopped on something. It felt a bit like the hilt of a sword, yet there were sections of it which seemed uneven, as though it were made out of rough material and hadn't been forged yet. "When did I pick this up? I don't think I-"

"Hey."

"GAH!" Astaire cried out in shock as he leapt back, his hand launching out of his box and bringing the object with it, instinctively pointing it at the source of the noise. On the other end of what appeared to be a large sword carved from some kind of thick, black mineral, stood a lone young man who seemed to be around Rise's age, if not a little older. In spite of having his hands up in front of him, his expression was calm and unfettered.

"Hey, hey, calm down! No need to beat me black and blue as well, friend." Astaire narrowed his eyes at the boy. He was certainly no friend of his, much less anyone he recognised in any sense. Chances are he'd remember someone like him rather easily, given how... Astaire settled for "handsome" - he was. His perfectly styled chestnut hair and flawless face, owed to a lot of makeup, seemed to indicate that he wasn't just another normal worker either.

"Identify yourself. If you're not supposed to be here, then leave." He finally said, brandishing his odd-looking black sword with both hands now.

The young man waved a dismissive hand at him. "Oh come now, that's hardly necessary. I was just on my way to my dressing room and decided to say hello, that's all." He assured Astaire, smiling.

Figuring he could assess the angular, rough-looking greatsword later, Astaire set it up against one of the crates and relaxed a bit. "Please don't sneak up on me like that, much less when I'm on duty." He didn't want to imagine what Rise would do if he'd injured another person so soon after they'd made up. "That aside, it's nice to meet you, Mister...?"

"Kaoru Airashi." The young man said, extending his hand. "But all my friends call me Ka-kun." He finished with a wink.

Something about the lad made Astaire uncomfortable, but he accepted his handshake regardless. "Mr. Airashi then. I am Kni-"

"You're Astaire-kun, right?" The handshake froze as Astaire raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, but I'm afraid this isn't the first time I've caught your name, what with the newspapers and all." Murderous oaths ran about Astaire's head as he cursed the tabloids ever more.

Astaire withdrew his hand and settled it on the hilt of his sword again, perhaps feeling a little more cautious than he should have been. "That being the case, you'd think someone with sense would have given me a little more warning before sneaking up on me." He motioned his head over to the stage. "I daresay nobody wants a repeat of earlier."

In spite of his words, Kaoru rubbed the back of his head and chuckled. "I suppose not, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. You've piqued my curiosity, you know?"

Feeling ever more on edge, Astaire narrowed his eyes and eyed Kaoru up suspiciously. "Do tell."

"Well," Kaoru began, "Being part of the same company as Rise-chan, I hear a lot of things by osmosis concerning the affairs of others. Yet in spite of that, never once did I catch wind of her either having or needing a new bodyguard. It seems like you just stepped out of the ether one day!"

It was all Astaire could do to hold back a cough as a tightness took hold in his chest. "Well then, I suppose you're not as well informed as you think you are. One can't know everything all the time."

"Ahaha! Yes, quite." He continued. "But that's only because one usually doesn't have as many friends as I do. Connections are the lifeblood of showbusiness Astaire-kun, and staying well informed helps present opportunities to build said connections. Information flow is a given in an idol's line of work." He said confidently.

Arrogant was the word Astaire would have used. If he was going for a good first impression, he wasn't doing a good job. "I suppose you'd know more about that than I. Should I assume you're here to garner information from me as well, then?"

The idol gave him a smile. "Right on the money. I shan't take long, I promise."

"Not if I have anything to do with it." Astaire thought to himself. Judging from his general demeanour, it'd probably be easier to humour him than to drive him off.

The questioning began as Kaoru produced a phone from his back pocket. "Now, first off, that sword." He began, gesturing to the large slab of mineral on a stick. "Where'd you pull that out from? It's not the first time you've done it, if the news is to be believed."

Already it seemed like humouring the fellow hadn't been the best idea. A line of thought cast itself into the waters of Astaire's head as he fished around for, not only an excuse, but a _good_ excuse. "It's… hm." He began, entirely unconvincingly.

"Magic. It's magic."

Goddamnit.

The look on Kaoru's face wasn't exactly the one he'd been expecting. If anything it gave him the impression that he'd just given him more questions. "Magic? Like, pulling a rabbit out of a hat? That kind of magic?"

Was that something humans did? That didn't sound like any Sorcery or Miracle Astaire had learned before. In fact he struggled to imagine the practical combat applications of such an act in the first place. "Indeed. I'm proficient in a few kinds of magic, and this is one of them." Screw it, time to roll with it.

His supposed knowledge of magic seemed to spark Kaoru's interest. "Really now? So you can perform other feats just like that?" Astaire nodded, slowly feeling a little more manic as time went on. "Could you show me one?"

Damn. DAMN. For a moment Astaire briefly wished he'd kept a shovel on him so he could dig himself out of the grave he was currently putting himself in to. His mind raced, "What do I do? What do I show him?" A catalyst? A Talisman? If he pulled one out, it'd give away the existence of the Bottomless Box, and that'd be another layer on top of the cake of things he'd just have to explain.

Finally, it came to him. "Certainly. Behold!" He said, digging into the depths of his soul and summoning the power of his Pyromancy Flame into his hand, lighting it up with a small, glowing flame.

"Wow, that's certainly something, Astaire-kun." For a brief moment it appeared as though Kaoru would be sated with this. "I'm still unsure as to how a magician becomes a bodyguard capable of carrying something that big, but there are more important things at hand." Yes. Score one for Knight Astaire. "Now, could you tell me about your relationship with Rise-chan?"

It was a small wonder that an audible "thud" couldn't be heard as Astaire's lungs felt like they dropped to the bottom of his torso. "B-Beg pardon?"

"Well, it's not exactly my place to pry, but…" Funny, coming from the one who insisted he was so well informed. "...the only times you've been majorly seen together, you've both gone into the same hotel room. Without coming out the whole time. Even during the night." The initial surprise at the question quickly began simmering over to anger as Astaire finally realised the snake's true intentions. "Care to explain that? Are you two, y'know…"

"I think it's about time you made your way on to your dressing room, Mr. Airashi." Astaire began, his voice much lower and more serious than it had previously been. "I'm suddenly not in a very talkative mood."

Bad idea. "Oh, so it's a romantic thing then?" The pyromancy flame in Astaire's hand seemed to begin simmering a little hotter as Kaoru kept talking. "I mean it'd make more sense that way, since Rise-chan would likely have wanted you out of the spotlight before now, but it seems a little reckless to-"

Between the time it had taken him to look down to, and up from his notes on his phone, Kaoru found that Astaire had suddenly closed the distance between them. So close in fact that he could could practically hear his blood boiling underneath his skin. "You're no better than the rest of them. I should have known." Even an idiot could have seen that Astaire was barely keeping his composure.

In spite of that, Kaoru remained unnervingly unmoved. "Have I hit a nerve, then? I suppose it must be true. I'm told that room only has one bed after all."

No sooner had the words escaped his mouth, Kaoru suddenly felt his feet leave the floor as Astaire forcefully lifted him by the collar, his face so close that he could practically see the fire raging behind his eyes. "Ms. Kujikawa has kindly taken me in because I have nowhere else to go. I sleep on the floor and take inventory. That is all." He said through gritted teeth. "And should I find out that you are twisting her boundless kindness into some sort of lecherous facade, I'll see to it that you're not far behind those two who were just on stage."

Any sensible person could have had a number of reactions. Retaliative anger, worry, fear, annoyance, the list went on.

Kaoru showed none of these. He seemed to close his eyes and sigh, placing a hand on Astaire's at his collar. "Alright Astaire-kun, I'll take your word for it. You seem a decent fellow, after all." His seemingly unending calm was enough to throw the knight for a loop, in the end he was the one looking more surprised than the one he was holding. "Now, if you'd please let me down."

The seconds that followed were intense. All other sounds seemed to drown out, save for the light breathing from both parties involved. To say the tension could have been cut with a knife was an understatement, more that it could have been waded through as water. Finally, after keeping their positions for a small while longer, Astaire released his grip.

Several electronic beeps sounded from Kaoru's hand before he held up his phone. "See? All gone. You can trust me, Astaire-kun, honest!" Yet Astaire's glare lingered. He didn't want to admit that he couldn't read what he'd left on the note, or fully understood what he'd deleted. "I'm just concerned about Rise-chan, y'know? I'm one of her biggest fans myself. Wouldn't you be worried if someone you liked started hanging around with strange men who appeared from nowhere?"

The deep exhalation that left Astaire's nose seemed to vent him of the fire burning inside him as he slowly regained his stature. "I'd like to hope your usual brand of questioning isn't quite as… inflammatory. Someone could lose their heads over such baseless accusations."

A rich statement coming from someone who very nearly had. "Ahahaha. I've had a few close stints, I'll admit. But you're a special case, Astaire-kun. If you were someone else's bodyguard that'd be right as rain, but you must understand that I'm simply worried about Rise-chan's image of purity." The puzzled look that Astaire gave him let him know to continue. "An idol, male or female, needs to be pure. She can't devote herself to just one person, she needs to be devoted to _everyone,_ meaning her fans above all else."

So that was the reason Rise was so concerned over the matter. This image of "purity", as he put it. "An Idol is either pure, or she is discarded. There is little room for error." Kaoru continued as he put away his phone, walking off towards the stairs. Just as he went to pass Astaire by, he whispered to him, "If you truly care about her, you'd be better off out of the way. Bye."

Calm. Keep calm. Let him walk away. Let him think whatever he damn well pleases. All these thoughts and more echoed in Astaire's head as he listened to Kaoru walk off. He heard him utter something to someone before finally being cut off by the sound of the door closing.

"Bastard!" Astaire growled to himself, turning around and slamming his fist into one of the wooden crates, caving it in slightly and embedding his knuckles with splinters. "I never should have humoured him in the first place. Damn it all" He thought, brushing his hand off and ignoring the sting of pain that shot through it.

His heart finally lifted as a familiar voice graced his ears. "Astaire-kun, is everything okay?" The moment she spoke, Rise seemed to cast a spell on him and immediately flush all his pent up tension away like a hot shower. "Were you talking to Ka-kun just now?" The tension mounted ever so slightly again as she mentioned his name, however.

Meeting her eyes sorted that right out. "Yes, unfortunately. He's a mite too… invasive, for my liking." To cut a long story short and with many less expletives. "Regardless, what did Mr. Inoue say to you?"

Rise perked right up as she clapped her hands together. "Good news, we've got the day off! Seeing as this whole thing was so out of the blue and those two will need some taking care of, management thought it best if we scarper for the time being!" She explained, clearly too overjoyed at the thought of having a day off to be concerned over why she got it in the first place.

"My, how generous of them." Not that Astaire was going to complain about it. He met her as she came down the stairs and took after her through the electric jungle of wires towards the exit.

Outside the studio, it became all too clear to Astaire that word of his endeavours had spread quickly. Staff, other idols and men in suits seemed to be giving him looks of fear, reservation and suspicion in varying amounts. Considering how large said demographics were to the surroundings, it was more than enough to make him feel on edge.

As though keen telepathically, Rise spoke up. "Don't worry about it. It's just not often something like this happens." As she turned to look at him, for some reason her expression turned from concerned to somewhat alarmed. "Then again, maybe that's not why they're looking..."

Just as he opened his mouth to ask what she was on about, the wind picked up, making it all too clear to Astaire that he was feeling the breeze in more places than strictly necessary. Taking a closer look at his coat, the sleeves were purpled with dried blood, the large gash where his Zweihander had dug into him was made all the more apparent, the ends were tattered from the forest monster's wind magic, and two dagger holes in the back were at odds with his movements, widening slightly as he went.

"Gwyn's beard, I didn't notice how bad it was until now!" Astaire exclaimed as he huddled his arms around himself to try and stave off the chill on the wind. " Perhaps it'd be prudent to fish out my armour next time a fight is incurred."

His words seemed to hit a switch in Rise's head as she clicked her fingers. "Got it!" She turned on the spot and began walking backwards, jabbing a finger in Astaire's direction. "We're gonna go to Inaba and get it fixed and cleaned! Kanji's mom owns a textile shop in town, I'm sure she could do something with it!"

"Not to mention I still need to get Teddie to finally make me a pair of glasses. I never thought I'd see the day when I was actually running low on Green Blossom." The mere thought of walking through the TV again made Astaire feel queasy and the inside of his mouth taste bitter.

The two approached the large black car that they'd arrived in, hopping into the back after telling the driver where to go. The embrace of the leather seats seemed to draw Astaire in as he exhaled deeply, sinking down ever further. "What a day it's been." He said mostly to himself.

"What a morning, more like!" Rise said as she jabbed Astaire in the arm. "This is just a one time thing, my days usually stretch on much longer than this!" It almost sounded like she was boasting slightly.

Thinking about experiencing all the events of today over an extended period seemed to refresh the wave of exhaustion which currently loomed over Astaire. "How much longer are we talking about?"

"I've gone from morning until dark some days!" Rise looked over and giggled at the look Astaire was giving her in reaction. Needless to say he wasn't pleased. "Hey, you'd be surprised by how much being an idol takes it out of you, nobody ever said it was an easy job, after all."

It certainly wasn't anywhere comparable to fighting undead and monsters, but it was surprisingly tiring all the same. "So you're up dancing and whatnot from dawn 'til dusk?" Astaire asked, genuinely curious now.

"Not exactly, there's often a bunch of stuff that needs doing. Rehearsals, photo shoots, commercial recordings, stuff for TV…" She continued on and on, everything eventually devolving into white noise as the sheer flood of information overwhelmed Astaire entirely "...and of course there's my big concert coming up in a little while, so there'll be a lot of preparation for that too." She finally finished.

The staggered stare she was receiving in return spoke volumes. "That sounds awful. I daresay a normal person would keel over from exhaustion."

"Ah!" Rise raised her hand to her forehead and turned away is faux-sorrow. "Calling me abnormal! How awful!" She said with an air of obviously-faked distress, keeping an eye on Astaire's reflection in the tinted window.

Unfortunately, it seemed Astaire wasn't as privy to her games as some others were. "N-No, no! Not at all!" He said, frantically waving his hands in front of him as though trying to wipe what he'd said from some unseen record. "I mean… not abnormal, per se. More…" Astaire drummed his fingers on his cheek as he cradled his chin in thought. Finally he spoke, "...special. I suppose that'd be the word."

Luckily for her, Rise quickly averted her gaze in time to hide the redness approaching her cheeks. "Oh come on now, it's not _that_ impressive." She said, twirling the end of one of her twintails around her finger.

"It is to me." Astaire said. "I didn't see much of it, but that whole performance out on stage hardly seemed easy." Not that it was any easier to listen to. "I know I certainly couldn't pull that off, much less until nightfall."

Finally, Rise turned back to look at him with a small giggle, a genuine smile on her face. "Thank you, Astaire-kun."

Her smile seemed infectious, as it began to spread of Astaire's cheeks as well. "Not at all, Ms. Kujikawa."

For a moment, the two basked in the silence of the car ride, content with each other's company until, "Oh, shoot!" Rise exclaimed to the sound of Astaire bumping his head off the roof in shock. She reached into her bag on the seat next to her and produced a small, familiar container. "My omelette! I almost forgot about it!" she cheered, popping the top off posthaste. However, just as she reached for the first bite, she paused. Her eyes narrowed and slowly turned to meet Astaire's. "...This _does_ taste good, doesn't it?"

The knight raised an eyebrow in return. "...Yes? Why wouldn't it?" He asked.

Rise's eyes remained narrowed. Internally, she knew Astaire was unlikely to be a good enough actor to convince her otherwise, but on the other hand, he may have stomached it earlier and simply said it was good to please her, much like Nanako had.

...But on the other hand, he'd made it perfectly clear what he'd thought of her performance backstage earlier. Perhaps he really was telling the truth. Perhaps she'd finally gotten the fine art of omelette-making down pat. Finally, Rise exhaled. "...Well, I'm sure you'd have told me if it was that bad, right?" She asked him for confirmation before turning her gaze to the first bite of the omelette. "...Here goes."

* * *

"Shomethingsh's sherioushly wrong wish you!" Rise gargled out through the mouthfuls of cold water running from the tap to her tongue. "I shought you shaid it wash tashty!" She continued, reeling back from the sink to wipe the sweat from her brow.

Meanwhile, Astaire could do little but sit by her side and shrug. "It was! It is! You think I'd let you eat it if I didn't think it was alright?!" He persisted, having stated his case on the entire run up to the room previously.

The fearless knight shuddered in his skin as the girl much smaller and thinner than him shot him a death glare from the sink. "ARE YOU SHURE?!" If looks could have killed, Astaire would have been turned to dust on the wind in an instant.

However, fantastic lummox that he was, Astaire replied "I mean it was a little plain, sure but-" He ended abruptly as a mouthful of water pummelled him in the face as Rise looked at him in disbelief.

"A LITTLE PLAIN?!" she fumed, not sure if her face was turning red because of the ensuing supernova inside her mouth, or her sheer unfathomable rage. Either way, she began fanning her mouth as she realised she'd been away from the sink for 3 consecutive seconds, returning in a flash.

Many litres of water and several packs of ice cubes later, everything finally calmed down. The two lay on bed and floor respectively, one relieved that their skull hadn't melted before caving in and the other relieved they hadn't been skinned where they stood.

"I think you need to see a Doctor." Rise said.

"After what you've just been through, I suspect we both should." Replied Astaire. "It really did taste fine to me, though."

He heard a barely audible chuckle from above him in response. "Well, at least one person thinks my cooking it good. That's something, right?"

A nice sentiment, Astaire thought. Then as he mulled it over, he shook his head in disbelief and peeped up over the covers. "Wait, I'm the first? Of how many?"

Rise seemed to avoid the question by getting up and stretching herself up. "Oh, it doesn't really matter. It was only a few times." How could it not matter? This was the key element Astaire needed to figure out who to be more concerned for, Rise for not learning from her past mistakes, or him for not succumbing to them. "Either way, we really should get going to Inaba. Maybe we'll even be lucky and nothing weird will happen."

This was going to have to wait for later. Putting his food-related concerns out of his head, Astaire picked himself up and stood alongside Rise in front of the TV. "Right you are. After you, Ms. Kujikawa."

Rise glanced up to him as he let out a deep breath, not doing a very good job at hiding the look of unease plastered on his face. "Hey." She gave him a nudge on the hand with her own. "I know it's bad, but this is the last time you'll have to deal with it. Promise." She said, extending her hand towards her taller companion.

With a sigh, Astaire took her hand. "I suppose you're right. If we keep a decent pace it couldn't be much worse than last time, right?"

* * *

Astaire rolled limply onto the floor of Junes, not especially caring if anyone saw him. "Guuuuuuuurgh." Was the only noise that escaped him as he tried to pull himself up, his head clouded and fuzzy within.

His attempts to right himself weren't helped any as Rise plummeted on top of him, leaving Astaire able only to wheeze as he felt the air forcefully leave his lungs. Naturally, his companion raised her hands to her mouth as she realised how she'd landed. "OhmigoshI'msosorry! Are you alright, Astaire-kun?" Considering he tried answering with a zombie-like moan, she was pretty sure she knew the answer. She knelt down and wrapped his nearest arm around her neck, trying to pry him off the floor. "Well, I think that _could_ have gone a lot worse, don't you?"

"As much as I'd like to agree with you, Ms. Kujikawa…" Astaire began as he pulled himself up, taking a deep breath to try and clear his head. "...to put it lightly, Hell itself is probably a preferable alternative to how I feel right now." He quickly straightened himself out with Rise's help, though his head was still light and swimming with some distasteful sensation. "But like you said, it's the last time. I can deal with it." Astaire assured her with a nod.

That said, finding Teddie would be another matter entirely. As Astaire glanced down the rows and rows of aisles, he could see neither hide nor hair of the furry blue one. An especially concerning matter seeing as he seemed pretty hard to lose in a crowd.

Aisle after aisle after aisle after aisle passed by, devoid of Ursidae, blue or otherwise. "Gods above, this is never going to end, is it? How can one so rotund and loud be so hard to find?" Astaire idly commented, his sickness fading and quickly being replaced with firm frustration.

"Teddie doesn't really have a set place in here. I'm sure he has a job, I just can't remember ever seeing him do it." Rise said, occasionally standing on her toes to peek over the crowds as best she could. "I think Yosuke should be around here somewhere though, we could ask him."

"No." The reply came almost before Rise herself had finished, taking her back. "I'm sure he'd be just as thrilled to see me as I would be him. I'll search this whole place on my own if I have to." He finalised, quickening his pace as he ever more rapidly scanned the endless array of paths lined throughout the building. His pace quickened even to the point of Rise being unable to catch up.

"Excuse me, Sir?" Astaire turned to meet the unfamiliar voice, finding himself looking down at a young woman in a Junes apron, wearing a sheepish expression. "Can I, uh... help you with anything today?"

"Well that depends." Astaire replied, unperturbed. "How much do you know about hunting bears?"

Whatever response the girl had been expecting to get, it wasn't that. She was momentarily stunned as she tried to process what she'd just been asked, trying to formulate a response.

Without prior warning, a cry of "Did someone say bear?!" pierced Astaire's ears from immediately behind him, sounding off every single alarm he had in him.

"GAH, GET AWAY!" Astaire bellowed as he turned and ploughed his fist into whatever had been breathing down his neck, sending the anomalous blue object flying back down the aisle before rolling to a stop. In the succeeding seconds after the adrenaline had worn off, it only became clear what exactly he'd hit. "Oh Gods, Teddie!" Feeling the guilt quickly welling up in his chest, Astaire rushed over to assist the unfortunate blue mess. Given his spinning eyes and general motionlessness, it didn't seem like he was getting up on his own any time soon.

Though it may have come as a shock to many, manhandling bears wasn't exactly a skill Astaire could be said to have picked up. He tried lifting Teddie from every angle imaginable, but it was almost as though he'd glued himself to the floor, given how well he was doing. Finally, he'd resorted to standing over him, wrapping his arms around Teddie's back and attempting to haul him up in a sort of suplex motion. "Rrrrrgh! How are you the one thing I can't lift?!" Astaire asked through clenched teeth.

No sooner had he asked it, Teddie's eyes sprung open. "WAAAH! DON'T HIT ME AGAIN!" He shrieked as he bolted upwards, the top of his fuzzy head cracking Astaire directly in the nose, while also sending him soaring backwards onto the floor, clutching his nose in pain. "What the heck do you think you're doing, Stairry-kun? I could have died! Or worse, been crippled to the point of hideousness!" Teddie motioned wildly, pointing an accusatory paw at Astaire as he picked himself up.

"I don't like being snuck up on! Furthermore, what sort of ingrate comes up behind a man and-" He paused, both in voice and movement, one eyebrow raised.. "...What did you just call me?"

"Jeez, what got into you? Having legs that long and taking off like that is unfair!" Came the dulcet tone of Rise's voice around the corner of the aisle, peeking down to see what she'd missed. Both fellows turned towards her in unison, at which point she couldn't help but break out in laughter. "You two… you look exactly like each other!" She managed through giggles.

Astaire had left a sore-looking red mark between Teddie's eyes, spreading down to his nose, whereas Teddie's headbutt had knocked Astaire in such a way that his nose had gone the same shade of red in response. The two looked each other up and down before turning back with a simultaneous "Do not!"

"Oh right! Yes!" Astaire exclaimed as he recalled what they'd actually been bear hunting in aid of. "Teddie, do you have those TV world glasses handy? I don't think I'll make the trip back without them." True enough, produced from seemingly nowhere was a brand now pair of glasses, with deep blue frames to match Astaire's coat. "Excellent! Many thanks, my rotund blue friend."

Rise looked up at him expectantly. "Come on, try them on already I wanna see what you look like with them on!"

As per her request, on they went. Shockingly, they were a perfect fit. Having the frames in view would take some getting used to, but otherwise…

...otherwise…

He'd had them on for nary a few seconds, yet something odd seemed to be happening. It wasn't TV sickness, but it certainly wasn't normal. "This feels off. Is this meant to happen?" The puzzled looks he got in return told him as much. "My coat feels heavier, for some reason."

"Huh? That's never happened before. Try taking them off, Stairry-kun."

With a narrow-eyed glare, Astaire complied. The moment the frames left his eyes, he suddenly felt a renewed sense of energy flowing through him, like somebody had loosened the valve keeping his stamina at bay. "Wow, that's far better! I feel like I could run a mile!"

Especially convenient, as Rise wrapped her arms around one of his and began dragging him away. "Great! We'd better get going Teddie, I need Kanji's mom to make Astaire-kun look less shabby. Later!" She smiled and waved while simultaneously dragging the much taller fellow behind her. Noticing her companion's puzzled look, she stood on her toes to meet his ear. _"Unless you'd rather wait around for Yosuke to come and knock Teddie into doing his job?"_

If Astaire had left any faster, Rise estimated her feet would have left the ground entirely.

* * *

"Hmmm..."

"What's wrong?" Rise asked. Astaire'd been humming and looking at his glasses for a while now, nearly walking into a few people as the two walked into town.

"It's not something I've done in a while, but I have this sort of… sense, where if I look at something long enough, I can pry out certain details about it."

Rise looked at him, puzzled. "That sounds… really specific, as far as superpowers go."

"It's actually pretty useful. All sorts of strange and foreign things wind up in Lordran, so it helps you find out how they got there." He said, narrowly looking up to avoid walking into a street light. "I want to see if I can pry out why these glasses made he feel so strange." He said, his glare intensifying even further.

All fell silent for a while. Rise glanced over at him occasionally, noticing a bead of sweat working its way down his brow. He was staring _really_ hard. "Hey, Astaire-kun?" Nothing. He seemed to have gone into some kind of stony trance, making it a wonder he was even walking at all. "Call me crazy, but I don't think it's working. Hello?" She waved a hand in front of his face. Again, nothing.

If nothing else, his dedication was admirable, she supposed. Considering her only other talking partner had regressed to a monk-tier meditative state, Rise found herself drawn towards her phone. Given she hadn't heard from Yu in a while, maybe pestering him would be a good idea.

"Hey, Senpai! Everything okay after last night?"

...Well, that's what she'd wanted to type. Her typical Rise-isms littered the screen, leaving the message legible only to her, Yu and possibly Naoto if she took long enough. She hit send, knowing to wait at least a minute for the predetermined translation time.

"Tired but fine."

Simple and to the point, as always.

"Good! Astaire-kun and I were going to go into Inaba for a while, think we'll see you around~?"

"School stuff, too busy."

Oh, right. Everyone else was still stuck in school for the next couple of weeks. It'd been so long since Rise'd seen the inside of Yasogami High that it hadn't really crossed her mind. In the midst of pondering her response, another vibration caught her attention. Especially odd, seeing as Yu typically never sent follow-up messages.

"Actually, while you're there, could you two do something for me?"

"Don't be silly, of course we can!" - She replied, not consulting Astaire in the slightest. Not like she had much of a choice as she lightly tugged him to the side, preventing his oncoming collision with a street light.

"Nanako should still be in school around now, could you check on her for a while? If weird stuff is going to start happening again, I don't want to take any chances."

Rise's face suddenly lit up. It hadn't occurred to her that easier access to Inaba also made reaching Nanako a breeze. After promising her to go to the beach and all the rest of it, now it was easier than ever! She hastily tapped in her reply before turning to Astaire. "Hey Astaire-kun, snap out of it already, we've got places to be!" Needless to say it wasn't that easy, given Astaire reacted about as much as he'd done before.

Rise pouted. This wasn't going to do at all. She tried yanking the glasses away from his grasp, but to her surprise Astaire had a vice-grip on them, even with only two fingers. She briefly considered slapping him awake, but figured she'd done quite enough of that for one morning.

Finally, something hit her. Closing the distance between them, she took his free arm and wrapped both of hers around it, leaning her head into him as she did so. "Hm? What the-?" Astaire seemed to slide out of his trance, blinking rapidly and shaking his head as he realised he wasn't where he started. It took a second for him to realise the familiar warm sensation creeping up his arm. His face bore an alarmed expression as it quickly began reddening. "Is… something wrong, Ms. Kujikawa?" He asked, trying to maintain his composure.

"Nah." Rise replied, not letting go and continuing to look up at him innocently. It was all she could do to stifle a giggle as Astaire quickly flustered, trying to make sense of the situation. "Although we do need to get going right now, so come on!" She unhooked herself from his arm and began dragging him along behind her, making a beeline for Nanako's school as he tried stammering out questions.

Rise recalled Nanako telling her about her walks to and from school from time to time when everyone visited her place during Yu's stay, meaning she more or less knew where she was supposed to be going. As if that weren't sufficient enough, the din of school children playing emanating from the yard outside was a dead giveaway.

Astaire's eyes widened as they entered the schoolyard. In spite of all his time spent in Lordran, he couldn't recall ever seeing people as small before. He also noted that while the noise they made hadn't ceased, it had certainly gotten a lot quieter upon their arrival, a fact which didn't seem to perturb Rise one bit as she strode confidently towards one group of girls in particular.

"RISE-CHAN!" One girl in particular cried, pigtails blowing behind her as she ran towards them. It seemed her cries had also served to alert several other girls around her, who were all making their way over as a result.

Rise knelt down to meet the little girl face-to-face. "Hey, Nanako-chan!" She smiled. It was only when she noticed Nanako now staring above her rather than at her that said smile dropped a little. "Oh, right." She stood up and turned a hand to her imposing companion. "This is Astaire-kun, he's my new bodyguard!" She said cheerily, trying to lighten the mood.

Sensing he wasn't exactly as welcome as Rise was, Astaire waved at the young girl. It worked for phantoms, surely it'd work here. "Greetings."

"Hi…" Nanako replied simply.

…

…

Well that didn't work. The situation was still incredibly awkward. Just as Astaire planned to remove himself from the situation, a call came from behind. "Hey!" A distinctly young, male voice shouted. Astaire and Rise turned, meeting the eyes of a similar crowd of young boys, one of which was looking up at Astaire. "You're that guy off the news, right? The guy with the big sword?"

"Gods above, not this again." Astaire thought. "Yes, we're one in the same." The crowd of young boys seemed to look amongst each other, wearing looks of… excitement? Intrigued at the unexpected reaction, Astaire raised an eyebrow at the speaker for the boys, a lad with black hair wearing a yellow shirt and shorts. "Why do you ask?"

"Could we see that sword of yours?!" The speaker asked, his fists balled and his eyes practically glowing. His friends behind him echoed the sentiment, seeming to teem with anticipation, cries of encouragement coming in spades.

Baffled though he was, the enthusiasm amongst his young audience was enough to coax a smile out of Astaire. Not waiting to think about whether or not it was even a good idea, he reached into his coat and produced his weapon of choice, hoisting it over his shoulder to the unified sound of awe from the boys. "There we go. Any other requests?"

"Where the heck did you pull that from?!" One boy asked, rightly accompanied by roughly five others asking the same thing.

"Weren't you watching? I pulled it out of my coat. Look, I'll show you again, hold this." He said with a sly smile, setting the Zweihander down on the ground. "Oh, and don't touch the blade, it'll burn your skin right off."

Taking his warning to heart, the boys all crowded around the hilt of the sword, three trying to hoist up the hilt and two others pulling at the crossguards on either side. Try as they might, the large hunk of metal stayed put. "This is way too heavy! Nobody could carry this one handed!" One in particular said through gritted teeth.

Astaire snickered to himself, having more fun with the children than he'd had in a long time. "What?! You can't be serious, can you? If you lot can't even manage that you'll have a hell of a time with this!" He said, whipping out Smough's Greathammer, again to the awe of his new fans. "Tell you what!" He laid the massive instrument down, head to the ground so that the grip stretched across horizontally. "If you lot can lift the head even slightly off the ground, I'll show you where I was hiding it and my sword, deal?"

He hardly needed to ask. In a matter of seconds, boys were leaping up and grabbing onto the handle, their feet dangling uselessly as the sheer weight of Smough's hammer trounced them completely.

Rise couldn't help but giggle at the sight of her imposing companion kneeling down and getting along with the children. Perhaps in some previous life of his he'd been good enough with kids to retain some of his skills even now. Figuring leaving him to his own devices couldn't be too harmful, she turned and knelt to face Nanako directly. "Say, Nanako-chan, have you seen or heard anything weird going on around here as of late?"

The young girl tapped her chin as she mulled over recent events before finally shaking her head. "I don't think so. I didn't see anything on the news, and that weird fog hasn't come back for a while." Well that was a relief. Then again, just because nobody had seen or heard anything didn't mean nothing was happening. It seemed a little pre-emptive to be too relaxed as things were now. "Um…" Nanako started, snapping Rise out of her thoughts. "Have you talked to Big Bro much lately?" She asked, clearly anxiously awaiting the answer.

"Not only have I talked to him lately, he's the reason we're here!" It was hard not to smile at the way Nanako's face lit up. "He was worried about you, but since he's so far away he asked Astaire-kun and I to come see how things were!" Her infectious smile was enough to light up the entire playground, it was almost unbearably cute.

Nanako looked over to the other side of the yard, catching Rise's focus too. The boys were all standing on their toes and stretching upwards towards the sky at Astaire's command, shouting something or other about the sun. "Does that mean he's friends with Big Bro too?" The younger girl asked. At Rise's nod of affirmation, she looked at him again. "He seems a lot scarier on the TV."

"He can be pretty scary when he needs to be. But I'll let you in on a little secret." Rise said, lowering her voice to a whisper as she leaned into Nanako's ear. " _Deep down, I think he's actually pretty sweet."_ The two giggled to themselves, taking another look at what the boys were up to.

"...and you take this and this." Astaire finished, handing one of the boys a lengthy branch from a nearby tree, as well as a plank shield. "Now you, try and break his guard." He signalled to another boy, who had a much thicker, longer stick and was holding it much like Astaire would a greatsword. "While you try and maintain it, got it?"

The boy with the shield balked a little at the idea. "No way! What if he hits me in the head?!"

"Hmm. Good point. Take this too." Astaire said before plopping a knight's helmet onto the shielded youth. "That ought to do it. Now have at it!"

The boys circled around each other just as Astaire had instructed, waiting for one another to move. The boy with the Greatbranch moved first, yet his initial swing was slow enough that his foe with the shield easily saw it coming and countered in turn, sending him off balance.

"Don't give up! You need to learn to work with the momentum! Don't forget to space your arms for leverage!" Astaire bellowed in support.

He only stopped his fervent cries when a tap on the shoulder greeted him from behind. "Astaire-kun? I'm not so sure this is a good idea." Rise rightly pointed out. "If a teacher catches them doing this, or you encouraging them, I don't think it'll end well for anybody."

"I don't know, they seem like naturals to me. They could likely defend themselves with the best of them, given the time and training." Yet as Astaire spoke, his eyes met the quickly narrowing glare Rise was giving him. He let out a sigh. "But I suppose you're right. Perhaps now isn't the time. Pack it up everyone, we don't want anyone getting in trouble." He said, walking over to the clearly dismayed sparring ring he'd assembled.

Watching him intently, Rise's attention was caught by the sound of footsteps rushing up to meet her. "Rise-chan, Rise-chan!" Both Rise and Astaire halted in place, frozen at the distressed tone evident in Nanako's cries. "Something weird is happening out there!" She pointed out to the entrance to the yard.

Upon rushing over to see what she meant, Astaire froze in horror, as did Rise, albeit for differing reasons.

A massive wall of impenetrable fog had erected itself at the end of the path, just before the road. It surrounded no other part of the school, nor even the yard itself. It was a single, condensed shape of sheer mist. "Wh-what? No, no, this can't be right! The fog doesn't appear in the middle of the day! It doesn't just sit in one place either!"

"Get inside." Astaire said simply.

His charge looked at him in confusion. "What? Astaire-kun, I know you don't know what the fog means but-"

A weight bore down on Rise as Astaire clasped his hands on her shoulders, staring her directly in the eyes. "I know exactly what the fog means. Get yourself and everyone else inside and lock every door you pass through. _Now."_

He neither looked nor sounded like he was joking. Not wasting any more time, Rise shouted at the top of her lungs, barking orders at all the children to get inside. Within seconds the playground was bare, leaving Astaire as the only one outside as Rise propped a nearby chair up against the entrance. "C'mon, everyone stick together! Everyone into the one room, hurry!" She called out, despite not being entirely sure why.

Rushing upstairs, the children hustled into the room closest to the stairs and locked the door behind them. As luck would have it, the room's window overlooked the playground, meaning everyone could finally see what the big deal was. Rise rushed over with as much anticipation as the kids, desperate to see all was well outside.

The fact that Astaire now stood fully armoured, sword in hand and shield on back, told her all she needed to know.

The atmosphere weighed heavy on Astaire. It always did when this sort of thing happened. Nowhere to run and very few places to hide. Still was the air to the point where the only audible sound was Astaire's breath ruffling the cloth draped around his head. Any minute now, it'd come. That spine-tingling, telltale noise.

A minute passed. Then another. All the while, Astaire's eyes dared not leave the fog.

His heart shook as the sound emanated in the air. At the end of the fog-addled path, a visage of pure darkness rose from the ground, standing to full height as the fetid black portal it brought with it began to fade. It bore a familiar set of armour, lifted as it no doubt was from a particular embraced knight of Carim.

"I take it you're not the real Lautrec, are you?" The Dark Spirit responded by drawing the long, curved sword it held at it's side. Though it was mired with darkness, it wasn't hard to see that it was a Washing Pole. That ferociously long blade didn't lie. "Well, whoever you _really_ are under that helmet, I assume you're not here for an honourable duel either."

The spirit pointed a finger at Astaire, continuing to lock eye contact with him under its helmet as it pointed down to the ground after.

Astaire brought his other hand to the hilt of his Zweihander, feeling the familiar heat bleed through his hood from the blade. "I thought as much. Sorry to say it, but I'm not in much of a position to fight fair either." As the dark spirit drew closer, Astaire began to feel the anticipation rush through his body, his grip on the hilt of his sword further tightening. "I've only got one life here, and I'm not going to lose it to scum like you."


	9. An Agent of Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fight with an audience, a detective, and melon soda.

"Rise-chan, what are they doing?" Nanako asked, peeking over the windowsill in bewilderment.

Truthfully, Rise wasn't sure herself. Astaire and his shadowy opponent had been walking in circles for a while now, with neither party having yet landed a blow, or even thrown one. The boys had all hustled over at the other side of the room, congregating and theorising about what was going on. "I bet it's like one of those old Western movies my grandpa watches." One suggested. "Where they all stand in a circle and wait to fire at each other."

Watching the scene unfold, Rise realised something. Astaire seemed to know that this would happen, thus she could assume this was something of a normal occurrence in Lordran. If so, then this would be the first time she'd seen how Astaire fought somebody from his own world. His shadow could hardly count, empowered by the TV world as it was. Ever since, he'd never really gotten into a serious one-on-one fight, at least not in front of her.

Astaire was a destructive enough force on his own. What on earth would a fight against something as strong from the same world be like? The thought filled her with equal parts anxiety and intrigue.

Outside, the tension was palpable. It didn't take a genius to guess that although the Washing Pole was unwieldy it'd be a hell of a lot faster than a Zweihander. It was a situation Astaire had been in many a time before. Of both parties, he'd be the one with the bigger opening after attacking first. That was when they'd strike. It was always when they struck.

The ground shook as Astaire threw the first blow, hitting naught but air as the Dark Spirit nimbly backstepped out of his range. As he'd expected, the moment his blade was at rest, the keen edge of the Washing Pole was darting towards him like a ravenous animal after his throat.

A fresh surge of pain splayed across Astaire's torso as the elongated sword made short work of his armour, slicing through it as though it weren't even there. Ever still, the battle-hardened knight grinned through the pain. _"Fell for it, you bastard."_ His muscles roared into action once again, ploughing into the Spirit's side. And again. And again. Each hit more taxing than the last, keeping the Spirit off balance so as to make running away impossible.

The two separated, now keenly aware of what the other was capable of. Adrenaline levels hit their peak, the scent of blood fresh in the air. Such was Astaire's focus that he entirely blocked out the drip-dropping of the growing pool of blood at his feet. No time for that. He had to protect Rise and the children.

Both fighters caught their breath, lunging at each other once again, wise to the tactics of the other. Both swinging their massive weapons about with reckless abandon, an unintelligible flurry of steel and blood to the eyes of their onlookers.

The urge to roar out in pain was palpable as the Spirit stabbed into Astaire's thigh, yet more fresh blood spurting onto the ground. He couldn't. He wouldn't. He wouldn't give his opponent an inch, not even affording him the satisfaction of a yell. He swallowed the pain, channelling it into the raw, unbridled force which connected with the Spirit and sent them flying across the playground.

Inside, the crowd was going wild. The boys cheered and yelled through the glass with each hit Astaire landed, shouting words of encouragement for every one he took. The girls, Rise included, weren't so ecstatic. Her heart filled with worry at the sight of her protector outside. His deep, gasping breaths that fluttered the cloth of his hood, the way he wavered on one foot when trying to retain his balance. The thick spurt of blood he spat onto the ground beside him. He wasn't looking good.

The brief moment of respite only served to remind Astaire how many hits he'd taken. It felt like his entire body was on fire, his blood littering the ground underneath him. A far cry from his opposition. Spirits didn't bleed, nor did they speak or cry out in pain. They were cold, emotionless, impossible to read. It rose up from the ground, straightening without a hint of hardship. It was enough to make Astaire wonder if he was doing anything at all. He seemed to be the only one suffering.

No. Impossible. He _had_ to be doing something. Nothing was that strong. Not strong enough to shrug off the Chaos Fire coursing through his sword. That was what he told himself. It was just a shame he wasn't buying it. The sheer severity of the pain crawling up his body was enough to make him want to double over. It was only through sheer, resolute iron will that he still stood.

There was no other choice. Astaire quickly reached for his Estus Flask and gulped greedily at it. He relaxed as the soothing sensation swept down his throat, taking all the aches and pains with it. His relief quickly turned to horror as he lowered the flask from his lips.

It was dulling. The flask has only half as bright as it usually was, the upper half returning to the dull, glassy green of the flask's body, ignorant of the wondrous golden glow of its contents. Just as he'd feared, his greatest boon was running out. As the Spirit began looming towards him again, the thought snapped out of his mind. He lunged forward, his fighting spirit newly lit.

Rise's breath fogged the window, her eyes wide. Forget never seeing Astaire like this, she'd never witnessed a _fight_ like this. It was different from a shadow, a ghost, a darkwraith or even with a Goddess. Each hit was visceral. Each wound deep and painful. The crimson-soaked battleground deepened a shade with every second that passed. Yet Astaire still stood. It seemed impossible, but some undeterrable force from within was keeping him on his feet, trading blows ever more.

The two locked swords, their faces inches apart. If Spirits breathed, Astaire would have felt it. "I don't care if it takes every drop of Estus I have left, you can't keep this up forever!" He shoved his opponent back, clashing with the ground as the blade toppled, pushing them back further.

All throughout the fight, the spirit had kept both hands on his sword. At Astaire's words, it was given pause. One hand dropped. A sign of resignation, perhaps? Astaire could only hope so. Hope which faded as the spirit reached around to its back. It had a shield. Branded with the insignia of a foreign land, long and stable looking. A Balder Shield, in other words.

The act of unabashed pragmatism didn't ease Astaire's thoughts at all. The fight had gone on long enough without this on top of it. "Hide behind whatever you like, coward. It'll avail you naught, once all is said and done." Astaire closed the gap between them, sensing this would be the final bout.

The obvious approach would be to rush up and kick the shield away. One solid kick. Yet as Astaire laid into his target, it seemed it wasn't to be that simple. He lowered his guard, attempting to rear up a kick. Before he could act, the Washing Pole bit at him. Pain. Fresh pain. All the way down his leg. Again. Had to try again. Again, the blade struck him. Again, the pain shot through his lower half.

The pain seemed blinding. The situation seemed hopeless. He couldn't act fast enough. A diabolical panic finally took hold in Astaire's chest as he came to the realisation. He was too slow to knock the shield away. He was getting torn to shreds.

There was one last resort. The one that barely anybody counted on him doing. He drew one last, ragged breath through his teeth as he tightened both hands on his weapon. He roared as his sword clashed with the sheet of metal, strike after strike after strike after strike sounding out like a mighty gong across the playground.

But it wasn't enough.

A chill ran down Astaire's spine as the Zweihander lodged itself uselessly in the concrete at his side. He'd given it his all. He'd thrown all he had at the Balder Shield and its wielder, yet it didn't budge. He might as well have been fending off the wind.

His stamina was gone. He'd wasted it all on a useless endeavour. There was nothing he could do. He watched as the spirit lithely rolled around him, just before an indescribable agony shot through his entire torso. Finally, he cried out in pain as he saw the tip of the Washing Pole pierce up through his chest, stained with his own blood.

"ASTAIRE, NO!" Rise cried out, her thoughts echoed by every child in the room. As the spirit withdrew its sword from Astaire's back, her heart sunk to the bottom of her chest as her nigh indomitable friend fell limp to the ground.

No. No no no no. There was no way. It couldn't have happened. It was impossible. Astaire-kun couldn't be dead. He couldn't have been bested by the first thing to properly come from his world, could he?

Her thoughts didn't cease racing as she saw the spirit turn and begin walking towards the school. Panic shot through her like lightning as the realisation hit. Whatever this thing was here for, it wasn't Astaire.

And she and the kids were the only other ones here.

"R-Rise-chan?" Nanako looked up at Rise with eyes that could have broken her heart. "What's gonna happen now?" The young girl seemed on the verge of tears, as did many others in the room. Astaire was their only defence to rally behind and he was lying on the ground. A tightness in Rise's throat made speaking difficult, but nevertheless she leaned down and wrapped her arms around her Senpai's Little Sis.

"Don't cry Nanako-chan, it's going to be alright." She lied, cutting at her heart like a knife. "We've just got to… we've-" Her attempts to calm everyone down were halted as a loud bang resounded from downstairs. Followed by another. And another.

The spirit was at the door, and it wanted in.

The children watched the door to their room in horror. Rise fell to her knees, hopeless. There was no escape. Not from the school grounds, the building itself or even the room. Not even she could muster up any comforting words as she and everyone else waiting for the inevitable sound of the doors giving way.

The spirit rounded up again, sending another kick into the door and gaining another inch on the inside. It wouldn't take many more now.

"...Hey…" The spirit turned around, ceasing its assault on the door. The hooded knight stood, his blood streaming down his torso from the hole his chest and pooling around him. "We're not finished. Get back here." He tried to move, yet found himself unable to walk without falling on his sword for support. Even then, he could barely straighten his back. "I won't let you hurt them. Come back here and fight me, you coward."

The spirit turned back to the door. It was clear to anyone that the hooded one was done. Bravado didn't stem bleeding. As the door threatened to give way, a surge of light emanated from behind the spirit, followed by a severe burning sensation that felt as though the sun itself had struck them. It turned around just in time to see the lightning dissipating from the hooded one's off hand.

"In the name of Lord Gwyn and the Warriors of Sunlight," They began, priming their massive sword to strike over their shoulder with both hands. "I'll banish you right this second or die where I stand."

It wasn't a trick or a ploy, not that the spirit could see. He truly was using the last of his strength to hoist the massive weapon above his head, leaving every other part of him completely open. He didn't move, either out of sheer, iron-plated resolve or lack of energy, it was hard to tell.

The passing seconds felt like years ticking by at a time. The only measure being a rhythmic dripping, widening the crimson pool at the knight's feet.

Finally, the spirit drew its sword once again. Time to call the knight's bluff. "Come now, so I can banish you back to whatever abyssal hovel gave you form."

The pounding at the door stopping, Rise and the kids looked at each other in confusion. It didn't sound like it had broken in, so had something happened outside? Grasping at a few scant threads of hope, Rise rushed back over to the window, her heartbeat frantic. There Astaire stood, coaxing one last attack from the spirit who broke into a sprint towards him.

The air hung thick as everyone gathered back around to watch. Nobody dared say anything, nor did they dare utter a breath.

The Washing Pole's tip disappeared behind the spirit's back as it wound up for one final hit. No sooner had it asserted the force to bring it back around for the kill, all was interrupted by a deafening, earth-shaking sound as the blade of the Zweihander met the ground with an almighty crash, the very concrete around the impact giving way and splitting like it were made of wood.

Everyone inside balked in amazement as anything not kept nailed down in the room suddenly leapt up into the air by a few inches. The flower pots sitting on the window, pencils and pens on desks, even a thick stack of books strewn over the teacher's table, all rocketed away from their respective surfaces as the bone-shattering force of impact ran throughout the school building.

A thick cloud of dust had been kicked up as a result of the blow. Obscured from everyone, Astaire gazed down at the spirit lying at his feet. "Thought I was waiting for your attack to hit again, didn't you?" He raised his sword once again, similarly grasping it with both hands. "Having something to protect makes all the difference." He said with a satisfied grin. Before the spirit could get up or roll away, the earth shook once again as another earth-ravaging blow crushed the invader into a sickening black dust.

The fog wall behind him proceeded to thin and finally fade, allowing the wind to carry away the scant remains of the fiend who had terrorised the school. Satisfied with the outcome, Astaire felt any semblance of energy leave him as he fell backwards onto the concrete. If he'd had the stamina to breathe a sigh of relief, he'd have done so.

"ASTAIRE-KUN!" As much as he wanted to, getting up to face Rise wasn't happening. This was even worse than the haunted house incident, moving at all was out of the question. Her face appeared above his own as she tore off his hood, peppering him with freshly fallen tears. "Come on, get up! You can get up, can't you?! You're not dying, right?!" She asked with increasing maniacal concern.

It took effort on par with moving a boulder, but Astaire managed to loll his head to one side, his eyes meeting the brilliant yet fading golden glow of the Estus Flask. Following his gaze, Rise scrambled to free it as quickly as she could, fumbling as her hands trembled and shook.

Finally freeing it, Rise carefully set her hand behind Astaire's head and propped him up on her lap, freeing her hand to part his lips while the other poured a generous helping of Estus down his throat. She watched his face with intent, desperately balling her fists with such force that her knuckles went white.

The many harsh, bleeding wounds around Astaire's body began stitching themselves back together as the spark of life returned to his eyes. He blinked, slipping off a gauntlet to rub at his eyes as he sat himself upright, smacking his lips as the taste of estus lingered in his mouth. "Thank goodness." He smiled sincerely. "I'm glad you and the little ones are alright."

The knight was silenced as Rise threw her arms around his neck, locking him into a hug so tight it threatened to choke the life out of him all over again. "I thought you were dead! He stabbed you all the way through!" She said through waves of tears. "You were on the ground, a-and we could hear the door being kicked in, and, and…" Rise buried her head in his chest, armour be damned.

"I'm sorry for scaring you like that." Astaire placed his unarmoured hand on her back, pulling her closer in an attempt to calm her, her back twitching as she sobbed. "Come now, it's alright. As long as you and the children are safe, everything's fine." He said as soothingly as he could.

He couldn't say it out loud, but the situation felt quite nice. Nobody had ever been waiting for him to return from a fight before, nor been actively rooting for him when the Dark Spirits came about. His contented thoughts were quickly jostled loose as he realised Rise was banging uselessly on his chestpiece, her eyes still awash with tears. "Don't ever make me worry like that again, got it?!"

"I can't make any promises." Because if he was able to pick and choose who impaled him and who didn't, he wouldn't be in this position. "If fate should decree that getting run through again is the only way to keep you or others from harm, I'm not in much of a position to deny it."

Rise sniffed as she calmed her sobbing ever so slightly. "You can't just say that. I couldn't ask you to do that, I couldn't ask anyone to do that!" She insisted, again banging at the chestpiece like a child having a tantrum. What the hell was he thinking, having been nearly killed and saying he'd do it all over again? It didn't make sense.

All the knight could do was shrug. "Didn't I tell you? This is what I'm best at. For being useless at everything else, I should think taking a few impalements is the least I can do." In truth, Astaire figured that if he hadn't already been wounded, he'd probably have just gotten right back up and kept fighting. Not like it was the sort of thing that hadn't happened before.

It was hard to tell how Rise felt in the flurry of emotions that'd swamped her. Sad? Frustrated? Scared? Relieved? Happy? It all sort of mixed together and coalesced into a feeling she wasn't quite sure how to properly place. She was bereft of words as she shook her head, knowing only that she was glad not to be mourning Astaire's death.

Some commotion from within the school brought the two to attention. "Nuh-uh, you're not allowed outside, girl's rules!" A young girl's voice piped up.

"Girl's rules?! That sounds stupid, let us out!"

"No! You guys will ruin everything!"

Upon closer inspection, some of the girls were nervously peeking around the door at Astaire and Rise, then quickly jolting back inside. The two looked at each other, as if the other would have some idea as to what they were up to, when they realised how the situation looked to onlookers. Both of them sitting with each other on the ground, one alternating between wrapping her arms around the other and banging on his chestpiece out of concern? After nearly dying in a bloody fight no less?

_Oh Gods above, they forgot the children were watching._

Both protector and protectee quickly scrambled to gather themselves, just as whatever squadron of girls was keeping the boys back seemed to give way, leading to a storm of youths swarming out the door. They weren't long out before they all stopped in awe.

The playground was a mess. Chunks of concrete were taken out where the Zweihander had lodged itself after swings, dwarfed only by the single, massive crater which was left in place of the Dark Spirit that'd coaxed the attack in the first place. Far worse even than that was the thin layer of blood which was now strewn across a good part of the area, puddles and footprints left as a gratuitous, yet detailed map of the ebb and flow of the battle.

"Whoa…" The boys all chorused. One would think they'd have been more upset at having their play area thoroughly banjaxed by some oddball with a large sword, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. Everyone rushed over to the crater, peering into it as though they were expecting something to crawl out of it. "You did this, Sensei?!"

Sensei? Wasn't that what Teddie called Mr. Narukami? Assuming they meant him, Astaire gave them a careful nod.

"Whoa…" They echoed one another again, staring back into the hole. That was, until one particular lad's head shot up out of the crowd. "Wait a minute! Isn't all this blood yours, Sensei?!" He rightly pointed out to the notably unwounded Astaire.

Drat and double drat. How were they going to explain this? Both he and Rise stammered as they tried conjuring a suitable answer from the aether. After a second or two, inspiration hit. Astaire opened his mouth and- "Astaire-kun's got superpowers! He can heal really quickly when he's not fighting someone!" The knight's expression didn't change as she slowly turned to gaze confusedly at his companion's outburst. "Here's something else I bet nobody knew! Astaire-kun's also _going to be in a whole heck of a lot of trouble if we don't try and clean away the blood, right Astaire-kun?"_ Rise added through gritted teeth, more out of panic than anger.

* * *

"Alright, I'll take this end of the hose, and you twist the valve whenever I say to, okay?" One of the boys instructed Astaire, who returned a thumbs up as he grasped the rusty valve with his other hand. "Good, now open it up, Sensei!" One squeaky, hesitant to turn hose valve later and…!

Nothing happened.

Well that was weird. It always worked when the teachers did it. "Hey, can you check if there's something blocking the nozzle?" The boy asked, handing the end of the length of hose to Astaire. "Y'know, just at the front there. See anything blocking it up?"

Several minutes later, a soaking wet Astaire was helping hose down what he'd left on the grounds. "Sneaky little rascals, you are." The droplets hung his hair around him like a shaggy dog, giving endless amusement to the boys as they messed around with the water, sometimes running for cover as Astaire playfully threatened to soak them during his wash up.

The girls of the class, meanwhile, had been a bit more tentative in approaching the guy who'd registered on the Richter scale not too long ago, instead content to talk with Rise and watch the boys go about their tomfoolery, slowly clearing the playground of any blood. The debris, on the other hand? That'd be a bit harder to cover up. Secretly, Rise dreaded whatever knock-on effect this was going to have, but chose instead to take solace in the fact that there wasn't a dead body to add to the mess.

While keeping an eye on the increasingly wet boys, Rise leaned over to Nanako, who had sat next to her and seemed to have brightened up a fair bit from the classroom to now. "Are you okay, Nanako-chan?" She asked, just to be safe. "It was pretty scary in there for a minute."

The younger girl nodded half-heartedly. "What was that thing? That thing that was trying to get inside?" She seemed a bit calmer than earlier, but it was clear that it was still weighing heavily on her mind.

"I'm really not sure, Nanako-chan. Astaire-kun might be able to tell us though." Though she said it, this didn't seem to alleviate her worries at all. Nanako's gaze retreated to the floor as she mulled the whole situation over. Seeing the little girl in such a way was hard for Rise to look at. "...Hey, if you're so worried, do you want Astaire-kun and I to walk you home?"

That did the trick. Nanako's eyes widened and her face lit up at the prospect. "Really?! You'll walk home with me?!"

Rise winked and put on her best winning smile. "Definitely!" In a flash she was on her feet, assessing the progress everyone had made on clearing up the mess. It still looked like a meteor had struck, but at least it didn't look like it'd crushed someone on impact as well. Nodding in confidence, Rise cupped her hands and turned in a general Astaire-ish sort of direction. "Hey, Astaire-kun! We're gonna walk Nanako-chan home, alright? Senpai'd probably kill us if we didn't!"

Not wishing to incite Senpai-centric wrath, he nodded firmly and handed off the still-running hose to his posse of new admirers, giving them a low bow for their assistance. He yelped as the stream of cold water leapt down the back of his coat, the boys rolling around in fits of laughter as he danced around on the spot, chasing off the lads shortly after.

"Gods above, I'm soaked to the skin!" The drenched knight laughed. It was hard to imagine he and the one who were bleeding out on the ground were the same people, given the attitude change. "Ah well, I'm sure I'll dry off sooner or later. Shall we be off?"

Nods from both girls sent the new trio on their way, Nanako and Rise waving goodbye to the girls and Astaire bidding farewell to his legion of half-pint students.

After the bleak and depressing circumstances which had transpired only a few minutes ago, the gentle breeze and the blue sky was never more welcome. "Oh yeah, we also met Teddie on the way over here, didn't we Astaire-kun?" Rise asked, breaking the silence between the trio.

Nanako looked up at Astaire expectantly. However she knew Teddie, she must have been pretty fond of him. "We most certainly did. He wound up nearly breaking my nose, too. If he hadn't snuck up on me beforehand I'd almost have forgiven him."

Clearly Nanako found it funnier than he did as she giggled upon hearing of his antics. "Teddie's always doing silly stuff like that. There was this time during Big Bro's school's culture festival where he dressed up like a girl and won the crossdressing competition!"

She said it casually, but Nanako's statement froze Astaire in his tracks as he processed what he'd just heard. "He… he what? Why in blazes was there a crossdressing competition in the first place?" He asked, thankfully not noticing Rise smiling to herself as she looked at him.

"I dunno, but Big Bro told me all the guys in his school were really confused that he wasn't a girl!" Nanako giggled. "And then, there was this other time when he and Big Bro…"

* * *

Naoto pored over her notebook, assessing the notes she'd taken thus far as she hung several critical details from the corkboard in front of her. Her pencil flourished across the latest entry as she recorded the details of the message Rise had sent her a few minutes ago. Easier said than done, give the usual nature of her text messages.

A wall of fog. A being made of shadows carrying a sword and shield, presumably from Astaire's world. The fog clearing after it was defeated.

She tore the newest page out, pinning it up next to the other entries before leaning back in her chair and surveying it at large.

The singular re-emergence of the Midnight Channel, with the insides modeled after the world of it's victim. The "Haunted House" with the darkness that lay underneath, and now a manifestation of darkness appearing from nowhere and attacking others. Given the relative peace over the last couple of months, it seemed foolish to assume that Astaire's arrival in their world hadn't acted as some kind of catalyst to fuel these happenings.

...But why? How? As much as she thought about it, Naoto was at a loss. Even working under the assumption that Astaire was the trigger for all these events, that provided little insight into exactly how they were even being made possible. The only one with any kind of knowledge of the workings of the other world was Astaire himself. Admittedly, nobody had _really_ known him long enough to get a proper feel for him (other than Rise, likely as not,) but he'd been in as much danger as the rest of them. The odds of him purposefully trying to ruin their world seemed unlikely, at least for now.

Naoto sighed and got up from her chair, rubbing her head as she slowly paced around the room. She'd been collating these notes and aggregating details for the past few days at any chance she got, it was bound to get to her eventually. "Coffee. Coffee will probably help me."

Coffee didn't help her. The moment the dark, caffeine-imbued elixir touched her tongue, she recoiled at the taste. As much as she told herself it was an acquired flavour, acquiring it wasn't proving easy. Reasoning that letting good caffeine go to waste wouldn't help her, Naoto steeled her resolve and continued drinking, beating away the urge to screw up her face by pondering the situation further.

"If something caused these events to transpire all at once, there has to be some way of stopping it." She thought to herself between light sips. As much as she pondered the matter, she wasn't rapidly approaching a solution of any kind. Choosing to read back over her notes yet another time, she retreated back to her room from the kitchen and sat back down.

Think. _Think._ Rubbing her head and drumming the table proved to be of little help as Naoto pored over her notes yet again. Nothing about what she'd learned about their mysterious visitor was giving her any indication as to what was causing all this to happen, and it was beginning to frustrate her. Good thing nobody else was around.

"Preposterous. How can anyone be expected to complete a puzzle without first having all the pieces?" She asked herself. It was the only conclusion she could come to. Whatever was causing Astaire to affect the world so negatively, it didn't seem to be anything he was knowingly doing, nor was there anything about the minor hints at his past that provided any clarity either.

Naoto rolled onto her bed, resting her head on her hands and idly staring up at the mound of paperwork decorating her desk. She had so many cases lined up already, taking up another hardly seemed wise, especially one so cryptic. Yet something nagged at her in the back of her head. Something told her that this was important. Important enough to dwarf the priorities she held to her other clients.

"...I need a break." Naoto concluded guiltily. It didn't seem befitting of the Detective Prince to seek out a distraction so readily, but this case was a bit different from the others. The only clues that'd be of any use to her lay beyond the borders of her world entirely, it was hardly as simple as going to the police station and digging through files. "Perhaps consulting the others for ideas could shed some light on the subject." She told herself.

Slipping her trademark cap on, Naoto locked her door behind her and set out for Inaba. There was only so much one could do while sitting alone in one's own room.

* * *

"...so then Big Bro came over with everyone and brought a great big watermelon!" Nanako enthused, her smile as bright as the sun. Faced with a smile like that, Astaire found it hard to complain about having been subjected to her non-stop story time the entire way home. That said, he had the distinct feeling that he likely knew more about Yu Narukami than Yu Narukami did at this point, given he'd received about a year's worth of information in half an hour. "It's too bad I got so sick, though. Going to the beach would have been fun…"

No sooner had the word "beach" passed her lips, Rise felt a jolt of inspiration hit her like a bolt from the blue. "Y'know, Nanako-chan…" she sidled up beside the shorter girl, hands behind her back as she teasingly gazed off to the side. "...I still need to show Astaire-kun around, since he's still pretty new here." Nanako and Astaire looked at each other in confusion before both turning back to Rise. "So if we, oh, I dunno, happened to wind up going to the beach…"

The shift from 0 to 100 in Nanako's mood happened in an instant. She looked like she'd just been told Christmas was coming early. "W-Would you get Big Bro and everybody to come with you too?!" If she was trying to conceal her excitement, she was doing a horrible job at it.

"You bet we would! Isn't that right, Astaire-kun?"

Under the gaze of both girls, who could have the heart to say no? "Absolutely. I've never even seen a "beach" before, so I'll need someone wiser than I to educate me as to what it's like, won't I?" He said while motioning to Nanako, who looked fit to burst with happiness at any moment.

"Well, here we are!" Rise's announcement caught Astaire off guard as he prepared to walk right past Nanako's house. "Wait a minute, isn't that your Dad's car, Nanako-chan?" She pointed out. "It's a little early for him to be back home, isn't it?"

Though Astaire could only guess at what Nanako's father would be like, he could have sworn that something in Rise's voice didn't sound quite right. Almost like she was worried about something. He put it out of his mind as the sound of the front door drew his attention, a man with a red tie and black-grey attire stepping out thereafter.

"Hey, I thought I heard somebody out here." Dojima's casual tone as he stepped out betrayed his face as he laid eyes on Rise. "Rise Kujikawa? What are you doing here? Inaba's not exactly a stone's throw away from the city."

Ignoring his baffled expression, Rise shot him a grin. "Hey, Dojima-san! We were just in a neighbourhood and met up with Nanako-chan, so we figured we'd walk her home!" The "We" was what prompted the second baffled look from Dojima. "I figured it'd be as good a time as any to introduce her and Astaire-kun to each other!" She bubbled.

A glance off to the side showed Dojima exactly what she meant. The man Rise had brought with her was tall enough to look him dead in the eye, in spite of barely looking half his age. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Dojima. I'm-"

"You're "Knight" Astaire, Rise Kujikawa's bodyguard." Dojima finished for him. Rightfully taken aback, Astaire's words hung in his mouth as he realised they were no longer needed. "I'm well aware of who you are, don't you worry." Though he said as much, it was becoming readily apparent to Astaire that anytime someone could forgo his introduction, it wasn't a good sign for things to come.

Both girls seemed to be aware of what he was getting at. Nanako _had_ mentioned that Astaire was scarier on TV, so there was little doubt her father hadn't seen him too. That being said, only one of them had seen him away from the prying eye of the press. "He's not as bad as the TV says, Dad!" Nanako insisted, "This weird guy showed up at our school and Astaire-san beat him up to keep us all safe!"

It took every willing fibre of her body for Rise not to deeply sigh. If there was one thing she hadn't wanted being brought up in front of Dojima, it was that. Dojima shot Astaire an incredulous look. "He did, huh?" He spared the fellow a moment as he knelt down to his daughter. "Leave that sort of stuff to the police, okay? We'll take care of it the right way."

"I'm afraid it wasn't that simple." Rise's mood plummeted as Astaire returned the incredulous look he'd been given earlier, returning Dojima to his full height. "He wasn't leaving without a fight, so I gave him one. Waiting was hardly an option." Though he sounded calm, it was clear to see that Astaire wasn't what many would call pleased.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, neither was Dojima. "If some creep is skulking around my daughter's school, I'd like to see him behind bars where he belongs. Are you saying you can do the Police's job better than they can?"

"I'm telling you, it's not that simple." As much as he wanted to shout _"It was a dark spirit, you oaf!"_ or something similar, not even Astaire was stupid enough to think he'd understand. "I drove him off and I can assure you beyond a doubt that he won't come back."

"Is that so? Did you use that sword of yours to do it too?" Dojima said accusingly, narrowing his eyes.

As the detective's tone harshened, so too did an edge creep into the knight's. "What I did it with matters little. I handled the situation and resolved it as I saw fit."

"It matters to me. Don't go thinking that rubbing shoulders with celebrities means you can do whatever you want regardless of the law, much less in my town." Dojima bit back, extending a finger at Astaire's chest.

He paused for a moment, gazing over Dojima's shoulder to the girls behind him. "Should I need to defend Ms. Kujikawa from whatever misfortunes may befall her, I'll gladly take a fall or two if need be." He replied, deciding the omit the part where he'd basically already done so once.

Nonetheless, Dojima squared up to Astaire, so close he could smell his breath. "You're not disregarding the law on my watch, or anyone else's for that matter." He growled. The two stared each other down, both refusing to look away as their respective resolves were tested.

"Alright, that's enough!"

"Please leave Astaire-san alone, Dad!" Both girls interjected, pushing their respective parties away from each other forcefully. They'd been staring at one another so intensely it was a shock sparks hadn't begun flying.

Both detective and knight exhaled deeply. Neither could refuse the demands of the pleading gazes which currently held them back from one another. Both relaxed as the adrenaline seeped out of their systems, allowing them to look at one another through more level-headed eyes. "Listen, I work hard to keep this town safe. For my daughter and everyone else's sakes." He motioned to Rise, who still had her hands on Astaire's chest. "I won't stop you from doing your job, but you've got to let me do mine, too. Don't give me a reason to haul you in myself."

"Sure, the next time some unholy agent of the Dark begins wrecking this world and I'm bleeding out on the floor, I'll be sure to give you a call."

...Is what Astaire felt like saying. If Dojima had been there himself, he'd have understood what he did and why. But there was no getting through to him. He was in an unexplainable situation. "...Right." Was the response he finally settled on. He felt the tension leave his body as he calmed down.

"Right." Dojima answered acceptingly. "C'mon Nanako, let's get inside." And without another word, Dojima turned his back to the blue-coated swordsman and took his leave, leaving the door for Nanako to close.

The pigtailed lass looked up at her new companion, an apology on the tip of her tongue. "I'm sorry for being such a bother, Little Miss." Astaire began, beating her to the punch. "Your father is a good man. He too has someone he wishes dearly to protect, albeit very differently from myself."

Nanako seemed to ponder this, her gaze lingering between Astaire and Rise. Finally, she settled on a nod as a response, a smile returning to her tiny face. "Does that mean we're still gonna try to go to the beach?" She asked tentatively.

"Silly! Of course we are!" Rise assured her. "Besides, even if things had gotten much worse today, I'd just have left Astaire-kun at home and we could have gone on without him!" She laughed wholeheartedly, drawing Nanako in as well, in no small part assisted by the horrified look Astaire gave them both. "Anyway, you go in and play with your Dad, alright? We'll talk to you later." The idol affirmed as she playfully patted the youth's head.

Another nod and Nanako was hot on her Father's trail. "Bye, Rise-chan! Bye, Astaire-san!" She called as the duo took off towards town, shutting the door in their wake.

The menacing bodyguard was still fresh in Dojima's mind as he brewed a fresh pot of coffee. Even having overheard what he'd said to Nanako in his absence, he still didn't feel entirely certain about his character. However, it _did_ make him feel a little better about losing his cool. "Breaking the law to protect one girl, huh." He may not have agreed, but it certainly seemed he was the dedicated sort at least. He almost wished he wouldn't have to arrest him some day.

Almost.

The pitter patter of Nanako's feet on the floor briefly paused behind him. "Oh, by the way Dad!" Dojima craned his neck around in response, raising an eyebrow. "Rise-chan was telling me that Astaire-san is friends with Big Bro and Teddie and everyone else, too!"

Where Nanako expected some kind of response, only silence followed. That was, until Dojima bent forward and let out a long, sustained sigh. "That… that would explain a lot, really. Somebody weird shows up in town, chances are they know him one way or another." Dojima rubbed the bridge of his nose, shaking his head as he poured out two coffees. "I swear, if I hadn't lived with him for a year I'd say he was cursed."

* * *

For a while, Astaire and Rise simply walked in silence. It wasn't an awkward silence, however. Rather, Astaire was struck by how quaint and peaceful Inaba town was. He relished the soft, cool breeze which swept over the both of them, the sounds of human-centric hustle and bustle replaced with cicada song and the rustling of the flora in the wind. Sunlight eked through the tiny spaces in the trees, unhindered by tall, obtrusive buildings as it usually was in the city streets. Every breath felt better than the last.

"Astaire-kun?" The knight snapped out of his nature-induced trance as his twin-tailed charge piped up. "About what happened at Nanako-chan's school…" She began, a pensive look drawn on her face. "...How did it feel? Y'know, the-" She cut off, pointing at the centre of her chest.

It only made sense she'd be curious, it hardly seemed like a common occurrence. "It's nothing I haven't felt many times before, if that's what's worrying you." Vivid recollections of the Darkroot Hunters' frequent forays into his world flooded his mind before he cast them aside. "Still, I wouldn't call it entirely painless. Good thing I didn't get the worst beating today."

The event had replayed in Rise's head like a damaged record all the way over from school. Her bodyguard and his opponent face to face, bleeding out and completely open, followed by a cacophony of noise, dust and sheer physical force threatening to topple the entire building.

Rise shook her head, knocking her thoughts aside. "...Thanks, by the way. I don't think me or Nanako-chan would be walking back home if it weren't for you." She finally said, catching her knight's gaze. Having caught it, she felt herself compelled to turn away so as to hide the ensuing redness on her face as she continued. "Not to mention… it was actually really kinda cool." She hastily admitted.

That was all Astaire needed to hear. He couldn't stop a grin spreading as he welled up with joy at Rise's words. "Well then, I daresay getting run through was well worth it, eh?" Chuckled the fellow who'd been bleeding to death with a hole in his torso nary an hour ago. He took little notice of the fact that Rise hadn't chuckled back, stuck on cloud nine as he was. Her eyes met with Astaire's shadow on the ground in front of her as she got lost in her thoughts.

Something had felt off in the past few days. Not just with the oddities taking place in their world and the TV world, but with Rise herself. More and more she'd found herself having moments like the one she was having now, letting her thoughts run rampant. The frequency at which they'd happened since Astaire had begun accompanying her was telling, especially.

This was unacceptable. Getting people this flustered was her job, not his! While she quickly dodged past puzzling out the reason as to _why_ she was so caught up about Astaire in the first place, Rise formulated a plan. If Astaire was going to insist on being so damned fluster-worthy, with his displays of bravado and good intentions, the only option was to one-up him! Nobody was going to make Rise Kujikawa have confusing feelings and get away with it.

Out of sight, Rise balled her fists in determination. The sound of her footsteps slowed as she inched her way behind her blue-coated guardian. "Sorry Astaire-kun, my legs are getting a little tired from all this walking." Though she sounded plenty convincing, her body language was anything but. Before he had a chance to turn around, Rise shot into a sprint towards Astaire and pulled off a leap that would have made Chie jealous, landing squarely on Astaire's back before quickly wrapping her arms around his neck. "You couldn't carry me for a little while, could you?" She cooed playfully in his ear.

"B-Beg pardon?!" Astaire squawked as his voice broke in surprise.

"Come ooooooooon! You didn't have a problem with it when we first met, right? Back in the TV World?" She teased, resting her chin on one of Astaire's shoulders, lolling her head back and forth.

Every second she spent clung to his back, Astaire could feel his heartbeat quicken further and further. "Th-Th-That was entirely different! I had my armour on! I didn't know you as well as I do now!"

"What? What difference would that make?"

"Because back then I didn't…!" Astaire began, quickly stopping himself before he said more. He dared to look over at his inhabited shoulder, catching Rise giving him a look which encouraged him to continue. "I didn't… I, er…"

Without warning, Astaire rocketed forward, his limbs swinging at speeds only barely visible to mortal men. Whatever situation it was that he was in, the best solution appeared to be _run the hell away from it._ His burst into top speed was such that Rise found herself clinging ever tighter to his neck, which only served to spur him into running faster. A vicious circle of embarrassment and fear of falling off.

Needless to say the couple weren't long of reaching the town center at the speed they were clocking.

"Okay, I think that'll do, thanks Astaire-kun!" Rise chirped as she hopped off her larger companion's back and cleanly onto the ground. "How are you holding up? I don't think I've ever seen someone run so fast for so long, not even Chie-senpai!"

"Please refrain from doing that again." Astaire managed to say between desperate gasps for air. He was still red, only now for a different reason. Sweat ran down his face like he'd been caught in the rain, his limbs exerted to the point where even the slightest nudge sent a fresh wave of pain down whatever had moved. "I don't know what got into you back there, but I'm a knight, not a horse." He added as he slowly regained his stamina.

The building they'd stopped outside was a familiar one for Rise. After all, she'd spent a fair few months calling it home. She hadn't spoken to her Grandmother since she'd left Inaba, meaning it only made sense to call in while she was in the neighbourhood. "Astaire-kun, could you do me a favour?" She asked, not entirely looking forward to his reaction. "I'm gonna go inside and talk to my Grandma for a little while, could go to Kanji's place and meet me later?" She could see the questioning look quickly race into his eyes before she spoke again. "It's just that I haven't seen her in a while, so-"

"That's fine by me." Astaire jutted in. "Just tell me where I'm going and I'll go."

He didn't sound at all how Rise had expected. Concerned, maybe even offended? Sure, no problem. She'd been rattling together a explanation solely in anticipation of such a reaction. Instead, Astaire seemed completely unperturbed. "Wait, aren't you worried about wandering around on your own?"

"I think it'd be fair to say we've both wandered around stranger places and come out alright. Besides, didn't I say you need only tell me to give you some space and I would?" He said with a smile.

Well, if he was certain, who was Rise to say otherwise? A quick explanation of where exactly Kanji's home was to be found and he was off, a smile and a wave being all he left behind him. Seeing him walk off contentedly, Rise felt the concerned weight on her chest quickly make itself scarce. No problem, he was definitely alright.

* * *

Astaire was far from alright.

To be sure, he'd meant everything he'd said to Rise nary a few minutes ago, but that was then, not now. Now that he was on his own, he could feel old habits dredge themselves up from the deeply-etched pits of his soul. He and his sword cast a long shadow to the East as his eyes madly darted around the quiet street.

An alleyway there. A side street there. Too many hiding spots. Too many potential ambush points. His hair disheveled itself as his head bolted from one direction to the next, flicking light beads of sweat to the ground as they did so. His steps were heavy yet calculated, the air hung thick as naught but the sounds of the environment filled his ears. It had to come some time. It had to. The sign of something happening. Something nefarious lurking in the shadows, ready to strike at any moment.

A dog barked, sending Astaire halfway across the street as he visibly recoiled at the sound, looking like he'd damn near leapt out of his skin in fright doing so. He shot a glare at the scruffy canine, scraping at the gate keeping it in the nearby backyard.

Astaire let free the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. "I can't go on like this, it's pathetic. Got to keep my wits about me." He told himself, steeling his resolve and continuing his way down the street.

"Yo, Astaire." Kanji called from the chair he'd set up outside Tatsumi Textiles. He gawked slightly as Astaire turned to him, his face screwed up tightly into a look of scowling, iron-clad determination. He looked like he was about to kill someone. "Jeez, what's got into you?"

His question appeared to wash the look clean off him as he calmed himself, running a hand down his face. "Nothing, it's nothing. Just erring on the side of caution, is all." For reasons he chose not to disclose. "In any case, good day to you too, Mr. Tatsumi." No sooner had the words escaped him, Astaire jumped as Kanji sprung from his seat, tossing the magazine he'd been reading to the ground as he strode over and firmly grasped him by the shoulders, looking him dead in the eye.

"Kanji."

"Beg pardon?"

"The name's Kanji. KAN. JI. C'mon, say it with me. KAN-"

"K-KAN?"

"-JI."

"JI?"

"KANJI."

"KANJI?"

Kanji loosened his grip from the unendingly perplexed knight's shoulders. "Alright. Good." He said as he sat back down, only serving to cause even more confusion in the other party.

"For goodness sakes, I already told you I know what your name is. You're an odd one, Mr. Tatsumi."

"YOU'RE DOING THIS ON PURPOSE, AREN'T YOU?!" Kanji fumed, raising a fist in Astaire's direction.

_Several minutes later..._

"You ain't with Rise today?" Kanji asked as the atmosphere began losing some of its previously held tension.

Meanwhile Astaire tried fixing his hair as best he could after nearly having the life shaken out of him by the shoulders. "Indeed. She instead wished to impart a visit upon her Grandmother in private. Hardly the sort of thing I could disincline." He explained as he graciously accepted a can of melon soda from Kanji, popping it open with ease. "Huh. Seems like that "muscle memory" theory Mr. Narukami put forth is at it again." He noted before sipping at the can's contents.

Kanji eyed him up, taking particular note of the large gash in the side of his coat from the previous night. "Guessin' you're here to get that thing looked at, huh?" He rolled his eyes as Astaire paused for a moment, evidently having forgotten that his coat was the reason they came to Inaba in the first place. "No sweat. Just take it off and hand it to Moms in there and she'll work her magic."

Within the space of an eyeblink, Astaire's coat had left his body and been folded neatly in his arms, replaced instead with the top half of his armour. It took a few eye rubbings for Kanji to realise it had indeed happened in real time. Within no time at all, the half-armoured knight returned from within Tatsumi Textiles, now coatless, retaking his place next to Kanji.

"So when you gonna tell her?" Kanji piped up after a moment.

"Tell who what?"

"Tell Rise that you like her, duh."

The ensuing spit take glistened in the sun as Astaire's head rocketed around to eye up Kanji sharply. "Such insolence! How dare you suggest such a thing! I'll have you know that my feelings towards Ms. Kujikawa are…" His energy slowly died off as he saw the unconvinced look Kanji was giving him. "...they're-they're entirely…" The words left him as he massaged the bridge of his nose. "...Is it that obvious?"

"Plain as day."

On the list of things Astaire needed to hear right at this moment, that was sitting somewhere around the bottom. He visibly slumped with a groan. "Ah, bugger. I suppose if you've noticed, anybody would."

It took a moment of nodding for Kanji to fully catch what he'd said. "Hey, the hell's that supposed to mean?!"

"Being that as it is, I suppose it's no far stretch to assume Ms. Kujikawa herself is aware of how I feel." Astaire continued, ignoring Kanji. Without warning he suddenly grabbed his empty can and crushed it against his head. " _Imbecile!_ How could I be so loathsomely dense?!" He asked as he tossed the can across the street, resting his hung head on his clasped hands.

Not like Kanji could deride anyone else for being dense, but nonetheless he exhaled heavily at his antics. "Frickin' calm down, will ya? It's not that big a deal."

"Of course it's a big deal, you oaf! One of the first things she told me upon arriving in this world was to waylay any evidence that we were… _involved._ How am I supposed to tell her anything of the sort with that in mind?!" Astaire fumed, his face returning to the beetroot shade it was by now well familiar with. "Besides. For a knight to hold those kinds of feelings for his charge is… indecent. Unbecoming of a Warrior of Sunlight. I feel as though I'd be exploiting my closeness to her if I were to act in such a manner. We're supposed to be the sorts who derive meaning through helping others, not by selfishly pursuing our own desires."

Having let out how he felt to somebody, _anybody_ felt far better than Astaire thought. Even the strongest bottle couldn't resist overflowing. "Oh come on, you sound like my Grandpa." Kanji's words served well in worsening whatever contented mood Astaire had gained before. "Probably not even him, more like my great-great-great Grandpa."

"Don't chastise me, you cur! When do you suppose you'll get around to telling Ms. Shirogane about how _you_ feel, hm?" Astaire retorted, gaining a reaction from Kanji all too similar to his own as Melon Soda cascaded into the sunlight.

Kanji outstretched a finger as he readied to tell the orange-eyed doofus to watch his damn mouth, but no words followed. He lowered his arm as he went slack in his chair, facing the sky. "Well, I guess if you noticed, anyone would." He sighed.

The two both gazed skyward, defeated smiles on their tired-looking faces. "We're both pretty terrible at hiding how we feel, aren't we?"

"Guess we are."

The two sat on for a while. Though their feelings were laid bare, there was something soothing about it. Knowing that neither was entirely alone in their pursuits brought forth a feeling of camaraderie between the two fellows as they basked in the comfortable silence.

"Hey, I think I know what'll help your ancient-sounding ass to loosen up a little." Kanji stretched as he sat back upright. "I'm gonna teach ya how to not talk like an old man." Clearly not well versed with the conversation patterns of the elderly, Astaire raised an eyebrow in response. "Y'know, like when you killed your shadow in the TV."

Oh. That. "That?! That was a mere tip of the slongue-I mean slip of the tongue! A moment of absent-mindedness upon getting caught up in the moment! I-"

Astaire promptly shut up as Kanji raised a finger nary an inch from his face. "Don't care. If you can remember how to do all this other crap, you gotta remember how to swear deep down. It's a vital part of not sounding like an ass."

There wasn't a sigh long or loud enough for how Astaire was feeling right now. It seemed there was no getting around it. "Whatever you say. Mr. Ta-" He suddenly halted as he clamped a hand over his mouth, seeing the oncoming fiery stare being tossed at him. "...Kanji. Whatever you say, Kanji. Have at me."

Apparently he _was_ capable of breaking bad habits. This was a good sign. Kanji cracked his fingers, wearing a toothy grin as he did so. Time to learn this towering dolt a thing or two.

_Several more minutes later…_

"Alright, piss off. There's no way I'm saying that."

"This is important, damnit! Gettin' you to loosen up how you talk is only gonna help you loosen up overall!"

"Like you loosen up around Ms. Shirogane when she's nearby?"

" _LEAVE NAOTO OUT OF THIS, DAMNIT!_ Now repeat after me, from the top! 'Hey, asshole!'"

The sheer onslaught of vulgarity was beginning to wear Astaire down. Swords and stun guns to the gut he could take, but swearing? That was a whole other story. "Oh, to Hell with this. I'm not repeating any of this to anyone."

Wait, did he just…? _"GOTCHA!"_ Kanji enthused as he snapped a pointed finger in Astaire's direction. "I knew we'd start gettin' somewhere eventually!"

Oh gods, they were getting somewhere. Why had Astaire agreed to this in the first place? The first incident in the TV _had_ to be some hangover from one of his previous lives, there was no way anyone in Lordran would dare utter such detestable oaths. Maybe he'd picked it up in the same place he'd learned to play the piano and eat with chopsticks.

Gods, what a tiresome position to be in.

Seeing Astaire's momentary slip as a reason to continue his tutelage, Kanji continued talking, yet only muffled noise fed into his student's ears. While he wasn't exactly intending to become a foul-mouthed miscreant overnight, he'd at least given the fellow the courtesy of paying attention. Yet even that was swayed as something caught Astaire's eye.

Somebody was watching the both of them.

Somebody peeking out of a side street, a single, narrow eye watching with intent as a thick handlebar moustache could be made out above their upper lip. It clicked immediately. _He was watching Astaire back at Junes yesterday._

The same uneasy feeling which had taken hold of him back then crept down his back and ran a cold finger down his spine. Perhaps he was just being paranoid. Perhaps the fellow lived nearby. But something about him _really_ set Astaire on edge.

The sound of the door to Tatsumi Textiles sliding open behind was the only thing to break his concentration. "There we are, good as new." Kanji's mother informed him, cradling the folded lump of velvet in her arms.

The astounded knight blinked rapidly for a moment, barely willing to believe it was actually sitting on front of him. "You're joking, aren't you? I barely got here, how could you have mended it already?" Yet true enough, as he took it by the shoulders, the coat at full length looked absolutely brand new, like nothing had ever happened to it. "Well I'll be. Thank you graciously for your astounding work, Mrs. Tatsumi." He said with a low bow.

"Mom's always been good at stuff like that. Even I dunno how she does it that fast." Kanji commented, secretly a bit jealous that his mother could work as quickly and efficiently as she did.

The bow of gratitude was returned with one of Ms. Tatsumi's own as she smiled lightly. "Anything for a friend of my Kan-chan." She said, seemingly unperturbed by the half-armoured knight, or the protests of her son at being called Kan-chan. "I do hope my son hasn't caused you any trouble, young man. He's never really been an awfully social sort." She continued, only serving to upset her son further as he protested ever further.

Astaire could do little but scratch the back of his head sheepishly. "It's quite alright. I believe it'd be all too easy to pin down which of us has caused the other more trouble, as of late." He admitted.

Thinking of trouble, a cursory glance behind Astaire revealed exactly what he'd feared. Taking his sight off the suspicious figure had given him ample time to disappear altogether. Whatever paranoid feelings he'd had about walking alone earlier, they were bound to only worsen on the way back.

He couldn't let it go. He had to know who he was, or where he went at least. Pardoning himself for the abrupt departure, blue coat newly adorned, Astaire took off down the street after his suspicious onlooker.

Every nook and cranny was empty. Each wayward glance over his shoulder proved fruitless. If the odd-looking fellow was still after him, he was hiding himself incredibly well. As he proceeded further and further down the street, a growing knot of worry slowly pulled itself taut in Astaire's gut. Assuming this mystery man _was_ spying on him for some reason, and _had_ gone this way after he'd caught on, he was being left with very few places to hide.

This _would_ have been a good thing, had Astaire not been making a beeline in Rise's direction. After a while, his paranoia was overpowered by his concern for his charge as he quickened his pace, forgetting almost immediately about examining his surroundings. Where the odd fellow was was now irrelevant. What mattered was where he _wasn't._

As he drew nearer to Marukyu Tofu, an unfamiliar voice slowed Astaire's lengthy stride.

...Then again, now that he heard it, something about the voice _did_ seem familiar. Curiosity getting the better of him, Astaire sidled up with his back against the large stone structure neighbouring Marukyu Tofu, straining his ears to get a better idea of what was being said.

"Look, I already told you once, I won't tell you again! Leave my Granddaughter alone and get out of my store right this instant!" An elderly, female voice demanded, hatred glazed over every word.

"I shall depart once the young girl answers me. All you need do is humour me and I shall be on my way post-haste." Came the frustratingly familiar inflections of the third party. As much as Astaire racked his brain, he couldn't remember where he'd heard it.

Finally, the one unmistakable voice amongst the lot interjected. "It's no business of yours, or anyone else's, for that matter! Don't make me call the police!" Rise threatened. Whatever was going on sounded serious.

Just as Astaire began rounding the corner to intervene, having heard enough to know all wasn't right, the third party spoke again. "Tell me what your relationship is with the one known as "Just Astaire." How close are the two of you? It'd be that easy to be rid of me."

As the fellow pressed ever more fervently, he was suddenly swung around on the spot as a white-knuckled hand shot to the collar of his fine black suit, lifting him into the air. "Mayhaps we could find an easier way, what do you think?" His blue-coated aggressor spoke.

Just as Astaire had feared, he held in his hands the unmistakably lip-bristled figure from earlier. He clawed at his balled fists, trying to free himself from Astaire's ironclad grasp and failing miserably. "Now, I've only just had this coat fixed up and cleaned," he began, "So I'd be loathe to sully it in the midst of a tussle, if you catch my meaning."

Sadly, it wasn't to be. The captive fellow reeled back his head, following it up with a devastating headbutt that sent Astaire reeling, his hand moving to his nose to catch the trickle of blood which trailed from it. The suited man doubled over, raggedly catching the breath that Astaire's iron grip had stolen away from him.

"Astaire-kun! Are you alright?!" Rise called over, beginning to take a cautious step outside.

As Astaire met the eyes of his assaulter through his now-bloodied hands, something stirred within him. He was powerless to resist it. The feverish urge which gnawed away at every being in Lordran, not just him. The instinctive reaction which he'd, on occasion, garnered from others upon carelessly attacking them, be it accidental or out of rage.

One did not simply strike out against a sane being in Lordran and get off scot-free. Astaire loomed forward before his fist met the bottom of the bedraggled man's jaw, sending him reeling backwards, clutching at the area of impact. "You audacious cur." He growled, shaking off his bare fist. "Weren't you ever told not to start a fight you can't finish?"

If being lifted by the collar wasn't enough of an indicator to run the hell away, the murderous look the knight was giving him certainly was. Nonetheless, the suited man shared a thin-eyed look between Rise and Astaire, apparently gleaning some information from the situation as a grin spread across his face. "A trifling matter. I believe I've seen all I need to." He said with a leer. Though he sounded calm enough, the manner in which he quickly turned tail and ran betrayed this image.

"Get back here, you cretin! I'm not through with you yet!" Astaire roared as he kicked off into a sprint, prepared to traverse half the globe if it'd mean getting his hands on the wretch that'd struck him and troubled Rise.

"It's alright, Astaire-kun, just let him go!" Rise's command seemed to clear away whatever primal urge was clouding his better judgement, bringing him back to his senses. His eyes lingered on the fleeing form of his target as he felt his fists loosen up, straightening his posture as they did so.

A sobering thought suddenly struck him. Had he not just displayed that particular outburst, not only in front of Rise, but her Grandmother too?

Oh, Hell. He had.

Astaire briskly made his way to the front of Marukyu Tofu, cleaning the blood from his hand with a spare Canvas Talisman he'd quickly retrieved. "Sorry about that, I'm not quite sure what came over me. Are you two alright?" He asked concernedly.

"Yeah, we're good. Thanks for getting rid of him." Without smearing his face over the shopping district, Rise thought in relief. "I thought we really were gonna have to call the police, right Grandma?" She asked her elder, who had spent the last few minutes seemingly eyeing up Astaire.

Her stare could have bored holes right through him. He shifted uncomfortably in his coat as she held her gaze. The blood from his nose still present from his prior tussle. Taller than Rise by a few heads. Straight-backed posture. Fair skin. Keen to taking and dishing out a beating.

"Hmmmm." The elder rubbed her chin, seemingly deep in thought. Finally she turned to her granddaughter, shooting her a smile and a wink."Mmhmm, I'd say he's a keeper."


	10. An Evening's Rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A blossoming investigation, a mammoth's worth of beef, and a conversation by moonlight.

What in Gwyn's name was a "keeper?"

A Fire Keeper? No, that couldn't be it, they were all females. Plus this world didn't even have bonfires in the first place. What in blazes did it mean, then? As much as Astaire racked his brain over the matter, he just couldn't seem to make sense of it.

"Grandma!" Rise scolded, looking upset for some indiscernible reason. Was it related to what a keeper was? Was it bad, then? An insult of some kind? For what purpose? Hadn't they been threatening to have the prior perpetrator hauled off anyway? What had he done?

The train of thought setting off through Astaire's head soon found itself bereft of brakes, running a mile a minute with no signs of stopping. His eyes seemed to glaze over as he slowly tapped his chin in thought, questions piling on top of other questions and pulling him ever deeper into a maddening spiral of unknowing.

Between her granddaughter's puffy-cheeked look of betrayal and the towering fellow's absent look of bewilderment, it was hard not to laugh in their faces. Not that Rise's grandmother held herself back at all, snickering mischievously. Rise was cute at the best of times, but that face? The face only her Grandma had ever been able to coax out of her? That was the tops.

"Oh come now, Rise-chan. Hardly anything wrong with telling someone he's done a good job now, is there?" She teased slyly. She knew that Rise knew what her original intent had been, her face said as much. But if she wanted to obscure said intent, she had no choice but to play along. She stamped a foot and crossed her arms, cheeks still puffed out. Bingo. "And a mighty fine job it was. I think I've got goosebumps!" She resumed, turning her attention to the fellow in blue.

Still knee-deep in thought over what the hell a "keeper" was, the introspective line of inquiry was abruptly tugged loose, bringing Astaire back to the real world. "Pardon? You've got what now?"

"Goosebumps, goosebumps! There's nothing that gets me quite like seeing someone get their comeuppance, I'll tell you. Only thing better than seeing it is dishing it out yourself!" The old lady enthused, rolling up the sleeves of her yukata and punching the air. "Ooh, if you hadn't been here I'd have given him what-for myself, I'd have!"

Despite her diminutive stature, the elder's vim and vigour couldn't keep Astaire's grin down. "Good thing I came when I did, then. You'd probably have left him hobbling rather than sprinting."

"You bet I would've!" She boasted, brimming with an energy that coaxed laughs from the both of them. Even Rise, who'd remained quiet up until then, couldn't resist a light chuckle. "I'll admit, I wasn't sure what to think when I first saw you two in the paper..." Astaire froze. Not this again. "...But I think I'd be loathe to say my Rise-chan isn't in good hands after today." The old woman gave the knight a low bow, eyes wide as he tried to think of how to respond. "Please continue to take good care of my Granddaughter, if you would. It's hard to keep up when you're my age."

Her request hit Astaire deeply. A direct request from his charge's progenitors, a blessing of trust in him based on very little. To say it moved him wasn't giving the act justice. The only response he could see as fitting was to recall the act once taught to him by Princess Dusk. Head lowered, hands together. "It'd be my pleasure, Ma'am."

Seeing the exchange as evidence they were more or less done, Rise stepped forward, clearing her throat. "Why, it's enough to make an old woman jealous." Her Grandma began, stopping her in her tracks. "Prancing around with a big lug like yourself, ready to run headlong into whatever at a moment's notice with not a word of complaint." Oh no. Please no. Rise opened her mouth to interrupt, but... "I know if it were me, I'd have a hard time keeping my hands off." The old woman winked and nudged.

"OkayIthinkwe'llbegoingnowthanksGrandmabye!" Rise blurted out all at once, latching onto Astaire's arm with a vicegrip from both of hers and dragging him off down the street. Destination: anywhere but freaking here.

"See, what'd I tell you?" Grandma added, cackling again as Rise abruptly unhooked herself from Astaire's arm, getting far too pent up in far too short a period of time. She puffed her cheeks out again, looking like tomatoes when tinged with the deep red that'd shot onto her face. Arms back to being crossed, she strode off down the street, ears as close to letting out steam as they humanly could be.

As oblivious as he was strong, Astaire could do naught but take after her. 

* * *

"Alright I admit it, I'm guilty!" Teddie blurted out without warning. "I can't deny it any longer, it wasn't my fault, it was impulse! A crime of passion! I couldn't hold myself back, I swear!" He insisted, clutching his face dramatically and staring off into the distance. "Yes… I'm guilty! Guilty of being head-over-heels over Nao-chan!" He finished, clutching at his heart as he clenched his free fist.

"Be serious Teddie, we haven't got all day." Naoto replied flatly, pencil held at the ready over her notebook as she and Teddie sat in the Junes food court. He'd seemed like a reasonable choice at first. Out of all the long-term members of the Investigation Team, he was the only one to have originally come from another world, so it seemed logical for him to have the most knowledge of how their current predicament might work.

Of course, there was just one problem with this thought. It was Teddie. "How could anyone keep calm under these circumstances? Grilled one-on-one by the famous Detective Prince! It's more than a bear can bear!"

"If you don't stop acting like this, I might have to call Yosuke-senpai over to get your supervisor. Unless you told him you were meeting with me instead of working?"

Immediately, Teddie was sat straight, arms on the table and a serious look drawn on his face. "I'm ready. Hit me, Nao-chan."

The complete 180-shift in Teddie's mood was something to behold. Proud that her idea worked, Naoto smiled to herself as she settled into Interrogation Mode. "Alright. Due to recent events, there's a probable chance that the world Astaire-san originally came from is somehow interfering with our own. I don't know how or why, but the things that have happened as of late all have to do with that other world. I don't suppose you could hazard a guess as to why, could you?"

"Hrrrmmmm…" Teddie closed his eyes and screwed up his face in thought. He at the very least _looked_ like he was trying. "Your guess is as good as mine, Nao-chan. I don't know that much about Stairry-kun's world, it's probably nothing like mine!" He finally admitted. Of course it'd be too easy for him to just know off the top of his head. Even still, Naoto felt a little let down at the lack of a conclusion. "...Although… doesn't that sound kinda similar to what happened last year when the fog wouldn't let up?"

Naoto's eyes went wide. He was right. The Shadow World _had_ interfered with their own before. "Teddie… That's actually a valid point!"

"Rrrrr! Why is that so surprising?! I'm a beary reliable bear!"

"That you are, evidently." Naoto admitted, trying her best to recall the events of last year.

The fog was going to envelop Earth if left unchecked, and was brought about by Ameno-sagiri, a powerful foe inside the TV World who believed that doing what it did was the desire of all mankind…

Well that didn't take long. "There's a snag in that line of thinking, I'm afraid." Naoto pointed out, relaxing in her seat ever so slightly, the rush of finding a possible lead wearing off. "That series of events had a mastermind. A being who had a motive, as well as the means to carry it out. As it stands now, this case is lacking such a figure."

Teddie's reaction was a bit more dramatic, dropping his head onto the table and rolling on the spot. "Back to square one, huh? It was all going so well, too…" He moped.

However, at least one of them wasn't going to lose hope that easily. "That doesn't mean there's no such culprit this time. Just because we don't know of their existence doesn't mean they don't exist at all. Although I don't know how exactly we'd go about confirming their existence, either…"

 _Snap._ Her eyes were on Teddie as he snapped his fingers, a light bulb having been lit somewhere in his head. "Nao-chan, I think I know where to look!" The look of sheer disbelief Naoto couldn't resist wearing spurred him on. "Last time, we only got to face that monster in the TV when we chased down the killer in their own area of the TV, right?" Naoto nodded slowly. "Well… heeheehee… Guess who knows about an area of the TV we haven't fully explored yet?"

A quick explanation of how he'd met Rise and Astaire in the TV World on the day of their first meeting followed. A new piece of the world made entirely from scratch? This could have been big. Possibly even the first step on the team's way to figuring out what was going on, and more importantly, how to solve it. So shocked was Naoto at the revelation that she'd forgotten entirely about taking notes. The moment she caught herself on, the pencil was practically left smoking at the tip after she finally concluded.

Naoto massaged her now-cramped hand as she thought about how unwise such an idea had been. "I can't believe it. We actually have a legitimate line of investigation!" Though she wasn't proud to admit it, Naoto hadn't actually been expecting much of Teddie. She'd been expecting to have compiled a list of guesses, theories and "what-ifs," not an actual point of interest. She had to hand it to him, Teddie had certainly outdone himself.

"There you are!" Another manner in which Teddie'd outdone himself was shirking off work responsibilities for so long. He cried out as Yosuke snuck up behind him and pinched his ear, dragging him out of the seat. "You'd better have some kind of an explanation for just bailing out, or I'll turn you into a Teddie-skin rug!" Only once he'd expressed his frustrations did he turn and take notice of who exactly he'd been seated with. "Eh? Naoto? What are you doing here?"

As thoroughly intrigued as she was about the lead, Naoto paused. Was telling Yosuke _really_ a good idea right now? He'd made it perfectly clear how he felt about their new acquaintance from the first moment he'd appeared before them as a human. Telling him that he was suspected of causing all these disasters certainly wouldn't do that sentiment any favours. At the same time, Yosuke was still a part of the team. She couldn't _not_ tell him, as it'd only make his mood worse upon finding out later.

Just as she was at a loss for what to do, a grey-haired guardian emerged from Junes proper. "Hey, Naoto. Have you been waiting long?" Yu asked as cooly as ever, arriving with timing that could only be said to be perfect. "I haven't got much time to kill since it's a school night, so we'd better get a move on."

Almost like he was able to read her thoughts. Naoto got up wordlessly and glanced back at Teddie and Yosuke, now engaged in a headlock after grabbing by the ear had failed. "Hey, partner!" Yosuke managed between groans, trying to keep the bear held, suppressing him with a noogie. "Shoulda known Naoto wouldn't come all this way just to meet with you, you slacker!"

His form was excellent, inescapable. Even Kanji would have struggled to do a better job. "Alright Yosuke, give him a break already." Yu said, guiltily trying to stifle a laugh.

"It was him taking a break that got him into this mess in the first place!" Unfortunately for Yosuke, the momentary lapse in attention cost him his captive as Teddie gracefully slipped from his grasp and shot between his legs, shouting gleefully that he was free. "Welp, there he goes. No hope of catching him now." Lamented Yosuke as he rested his hands on his hips. "By the way, what gives with the meeting? You two figure something out?"

Just as Naoto felt at a loss as to what to answer him with, Yu interjected. "Maybe. We can't be sure of anything until we've looked into it. If we find out anything worth investigating, we'll be sure to fill you and everyone else in." He dodged expertly, shooting his partner a glint-eyed thumbs up at the end.

Well, that about settled it. "Gotcha. Keep me posted!" And with a returned thumbs up to the two of them, Yosuke took off in hot pursuit of his golden-haired companion, disappearing into the waning evening crowds without a trace.

Given they were the only two left, both detective and senpai turned and began making their way towards their destination. "Thanks for your assistance. I didn't want to give Yosuke-senpai any reason to be in a fouler mood than he's already been in." Naoto said finally, feeling like she could actually breathe again.

"Don't get too ahead of yourself." His unexpectedly grim tone was such an abrupt change from earlier that it honestly caught Naoto off guard. "Depending on what Igor tells us, he may have every right to be." Yu said not a word more as Naoto found herself having to pick up her pace to keep up with him.

* * *

_Bear-Made Glasses (Ultramarine)._

"Twenty three, twenty four, twenty five…"

_A pair of glasses assembled through unknown means..._

"Twenty six, twenty seven…"

_...and said to provide the wearer greater clarity._

" _Twenty eight! Twenty nine!"_

_Lessens the effects of…_

"THIRTY!"

Astaire leapt in surprise as the familiarly enthusiastic voice ejected him from his thoughts, ripping his focus from the glasses in his hand to the multitudinous sachets of soy sauce which tumbled from atop his arms, scattering across the table and floor. "Huh? How did… huh?" Every move he made seem to send more sachets cascading to the ground, only furthering his confusion.

"Yesss! Told you I could get twenty or more!" Boasted Chie from across the table, fistpumping to comemorate her victory, seemingly uncaring of the mess she and Astaire had just made. "I bet if I tried it again I could get up to forty next time…" She grinned vexatiously, already eyeing up her victim as though planning where she'd strike next time.

Ignoring her worrying look in his direction, it came to Astaire's attention that he had no clue where he was. Given Rise was sat next to Chie on the other side of the table, he could do little but meet her eyes and hope for answers. "Don't look at me, that's what you get for not snapping out of it for so long!" Though she tried, she wasn't concealing her laugh very well.

"Where-?" As Astaire turned his head, another three sachets toppled from atop his head. "Where exactly-?" And then another two from behind both his ears. "For Gwyn's sake, how many more of these blasted things are on me?!" He finally snapped, flapping his arms and knocking around his head like a shaken ragdoll.

At that, there was little point in trying to hide it anymore. Rise buried her mouth in her hands as she and Chie burst out in fits of laughter. All Astaire could do was try and shrink back into his coat, looking much like a very annoyed aquamarine turtle. "Well that's what you get for going all-" Chie mimicked the pose he'd been holding the glasses in, "-on us! We had to drag you in here ourselves!"

Finally free of sachets, Astaire glanced around at wherever "here" was. It seemed pretty similar to Hagakure back in the city, albeit with less prying eyes and a much smaller premises. In any case, it smelled just as good, if not better. "...You're going to have to refresh my memory, I'm afraid. Last I checked, Ms. Satonaka wasn't even with us."

It was a good thing Rise had a strong jaw bone, or her mouth might have rocketed down and sent the table into Astaire's face. "That far back?! It's been like twenty minutes since we met up!" She was met with a blank stare. He really hadn't a clue. "Alright alright alright. Do you remember us leaving my Grandma's place?"

"Ah, about that! Can you explain to me what exactly a keep-"

"ANYWAY." Rise might as well have brandished a knife with how sharply she cut him off. "Afterwards, do you remember us deciding to get food when we realised we hadn't eaten since lunch?"

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Time passed by as Astaire propped his head up on the table, gazing to the ceiling in deep thought as he drummed his fingers off his cheek. "...Er…" Rise was practically off her seat entirely as she leaned over in anticipation. "...Yes! Yes, I remember! You said you were starving because of that omele-" He was again abruptly cut off as a sachet bounced squarely off his nose.

"Good job, Astaire-kun!" Rise faux-praised him, sachets lodged between her fingers like shuriken as she glared daggers at him. "And what happened after that?"

"I'm not entirely sure I _want_ to remember if you're going to keep looking at me like that." Many a fierce look Astaire had been given from one beast or another, but they paled in comparison to the one Rise was shooting him right now. Deadly eyes draped with clumps of hair up above, damp from the rain. "Wait, that's right! It started raining after we left!"

Everything sounded about normal. What could have happened? "Bingo!" Rise cheered, a few sirens away from sounding like a cheesy game show host. "It's time for your final question of the night!" A conclusion she must have come to as well, evidently. "Can you remember me saying we needed to keep dry or else my bra would start peeking through my- Hey!"

_Bear-Made Glasses (Ultramarine)._

_A pair of-_

"Gimmie those!" Chie snapped the glasses out of Astaire's quickly tightening grip, leaving him able only to blink dumbly as he resumed proper consciousness. "Welp, guess that about nails it down." She concluded with a shrug.

Oh wow, _that_ was the reason? Rise had anticipated that he'd simply looked at the glasses on a whim and found himself spirited away, but seemingly that wasn't it. She laughed again. Unlike before, it was a gentle laugh. One borne not from the hapless knight's comical bewilderment, but his bashfulness. "Hee… you're just like a little kid, Astaire-kun. So innocent." She giggled.

It was impossible to keep eye contact. It was like trying to push together two matching magnet ends, one of which was powered by the heat encroaching on Astaire's ears. Every time it seemed like his eyes might settle on her, they were off to another part of the room. Gods above. _Gods above._ What in Lordran could have prepared him for a situation like this?

The more agitated he got, the more she looked at him. It was that laugh of hers. That laugh which strung up his heart like a spear through the chest. It didn't stop. The longer he tried to ignore it, the longer he wound up doing something which spurred it on even more. Eventually, Astaire was reduced to burying his head in his hands, having nowhere else to go.

He felt the spear twist and writhe in the wound, as though naught but ripping his heart out entirely would stop it. There was no denying what it meant. He felt as though opening his eyes would show his shadow on the other end of the shaft. Taunting him. Goading him. "Admit it." It whispered. "Say it. You can't ignore it any longer."

"She's cute, alright?!" He shouted inwardly. "She's unbearably cute! A being so delightful that Lordran could never have produced her like! Not even an equal, nothing close!" There. He admitted it.

Bop. Bop. Something was hitting off the backs of his hands. "Earth to Astaire-kun. Earth to Astaire-kun." He parted them in the middle, receiving another sachet to the face as thrown by Chie. "Jeez, even without the glasses you're a spacer. You feeling alright?" She asked, a look of genuine concern on her face betraying the next shot she was lining up.

Absolutely not. Not at all. His admittance didn't make him feel better, not even a little. A monsoon of guilt poured down inside him as he met the girls' eyes again. It was the one thing he wasn't supposed to do. One solitary thing. That was it. Put aside your own desires and goals for the benefit of others, in the name of Lord Gwyn. The sun may have burnt him to a crisp for his disobedience, his selfishness, or anything else, it wouldn't have made a difference. Try as he might, he couldn't help it.

 _THWACK._ Astaire's knees thumped off the bottom of the table as he recoiled in shock from the Mach-10 packet of soy sauce that had nearly torn his head from his neck. Whatever look of concern Chie had, it had been replaced with a look unseen outside the circles of Hell itself. "Would you cut that out?! You could at least pretend like you want to be here!"

"W-What?!" His and Rise's looks matched perfectly. Apparently she hadn't been expecting it either. "N-No, I… I'm sort of… I can't…" Astaire stammered uselessly. Finally, he just gave up. A sigh of resignation settled him on one answer. "Forgive me, the both of you. I'm afraid my thoughts are a bit out of sorts, I just can't seem to be relieved of them." He said lamentingly.

He jumped again as Chie reached across the table and straight up smacked him in the forehead. Not a serious smack, more to bring his attention to her. "Don't think, feel!" She recited passionately as she flung back into her seat. "Whatever it is you're hung up on, ignore it! Focusing for too long on one thing will only make it consume you until it's all you can think about!" It was a small wonder Chie's fervent enthusiasm didn't actually set her alight altogether. "If you have time to worry about it now, you'll have time to worry about it later. But later won't have food as good, so pay attention, would you?!"

Astaire made a pertinent note to self: Never space out in front of Chie again.

That aside, he could see the sense in her words. Getting distracted like that was a bad habit to get into, at least when they were out in the open. Focus renewed, Astaire smacked both sides of his face, as though seeking to shatter every botheration occluding his senses proper. "Not a problem! Consider my mind awash from worry henceforth! Now, what are we ordering?"

"Don't worry, we ordered you something while you were all-" Rise assumed his glasses-trance pose herself, much to Chie's amusement.

"Wait, you did?" Though that was probably for the best, given Astaire's usual aptitude for reading. "What could you possibly have ordered me?"

Then he saw it.

It loomed into view from across the room, carried by a girl with short blue hair. "See, while you were out of it, I explained to Chie-senpai that you basically inhale everything put in front of you." Including a supernova omelette, which she'd omitted. "So we both agreed that we needed to see who was the bigger eater."

Chie pounded a fist against her palm. "I'll warn you right now, if you don't slow down and eat like a normal person, you've got no chance." She boasted, teeth on show like a ravenous shark. "Not that you ever had one to begin with."

The bowl placed in front of Rise was fine. Normal. Reasonably sized. Nothing any more surprising than what she'd ordered at Hagakure.

The bowls placed in front of Astaire and Chie were less fine.

Earlier in the day, Astaire had told himself that he'd humour Kanji with his little lesson in foulmouthery, even if he didn't take it to heart. Vulgarity didn't befit a knight, much less one pledged to Lord Gwyn.

" _Holy shit._ " This was before he met the Aiya Rainy Day Special.

* * *

"Welcome. It has been some time." The ever-familiar voice greeted Yu as the unmistakably blue room faded into view. Though swamped with familiar sights, something was definitely different. A sound. The sound of cards being shuffled. "Nothing in this room happens without reason. I sense you have questions in need of answers." Yu nodded simply. How Igor knew was anyone's guess. "Sadly, I cannot impart the knowledge you seek." The deck of cards rung out as they impacted against the table, aligning the deck uniformly. "The cards, however, may yet."

From the deck slid out a line of four cards. With a quick gesture from his hands, Igor wordlessly commanded them to unveil themselves. As the results laid themselves bare, for the briefest moment, Yu swore he saw Igor's permanent grin falter a bit. It was so brief as to be nigh imperceptible, but something made caused the involuntary twitch.

Yu gulped. If it could rattle Igor even slightly, this wasn't going to be good.

The first card stood to attention. "The Moon, in the upright position. A symbol of madness, darkness, illusions and trickery, amongst other things. Perhaps even a signification of hidden enemies in one's midst." Off to a great start so far.

The second card made itself known. "The Lovers, in the reversed position." Rise's arcana. "An indication of failure, and foolish designs to follow."

God, could it get much worse?

Had he said it openly, Yu would have cursed himself and his big mouth at the sight of the third card. "The Fool, in the reversed position." First Rise's arcana, now his? "Representing freedom and spontaneity." Well, that didn't sound too bad. "Then again, it is easy to perceive oneself as free when held in a cloud of ignorance and negligence."

At this point, Yu just wanted it to be over, if only to know that after the fourth card things couldn't possibly get worse. Yet his eyes widened at the sight of it all the same. It was an arcana he didn't recognise. A woman, with various beasts set underneath her. Number 11. "The Lust, in the upright position. A symbol of passion, inner strength and unconditional devotion."

Ah. _That's_ why he didn't recognise it. "That's Astaire-san's arcana, isn't it?" Yu concluded. Though perhaps Astaire's strength was more outer than inner. "But how's that fit in with the other three? I was honestly expecting more doom and gloom."

Trickery, darkness, hidden enemies, ignorance, failure and Astaire's arcana? How did it all fit together?

If Yosuke had been there, he could hazard a guess at what he'd say. That Astaire was the hidden enemy, and was preying on their ignorance to lead to their downfall. For all Yu knew, that might even have been accurate. But what reason would he have? What part of latching onto the most heavily monitored member of the Investigation Team made betraying them any easier? If he _was_ some kind of evil, he was going about it a bad way.

"Perhaps…" Igor began, wresting Yu from his ruminating on the matter. "It would be prudent to consider to whom the moniker of "ignorant" best applies, as a start."

Ignorant, huh? Well, working on the "Astaire is evil" presumption, the entire team (barring Rise, in some capacity,) could be said to be ignorant in regards to what they knew about the knight himself.

...Actually, wasn't he himself much the same? From what he'd said about his shadow, he didn't exactly sound like an expert when it came to remembering things about himself either. Couldn't he be described as the most ignorant out of any of them? Taking that as the case, could it be that the "hidden enemy" was only hidden because of his ignorance towards them? Could he have been tricked into ignorance?

This wasn't going to be a one man job, clearly. "Thanks, Igor. I think we can figure it out from here. You've been a big help." Yu said, beginning to feel his consciousness fade as he departed for his physical body.

"Ah, one more thing." Of all the times to make an addendum, Igor _had_ to choose the moments leading up to Yu leaving. Godforbid he say anything while his thoughts were all there. "Looking back towards the previous year for answers would be a wise decision. The Sea of Souls may yet provide you new insight."

His final words still ringing in his ears, Yu took a fresh breath as he returned to his body. The sound of rain hitting an umbrella was the first to greet him upon his arrival, as carried by a very rigid Naoto. She gasped slightly as he stretched the stiffness out of his limbs. Given his body had been completely still for the past few minutes, he could hardly blame her. "Here, give me that." He pried the umbrella from her, allowing her to finally relieve her arm of duty.

She huddled her arms closer in to herself, feeling the damp seeping into her clothes. "Thank you, Senpai. What did he end up telling you?" Naoto asked quickly, not wanting to stay out in the rain any longer than need be.

"Nothing straightforward or positive, anyway." Not that he hadn't expected as much. "You wouldn't happen to know much about tarot readings, would you?"

The sigh he earned in response was a pretty good indicator. "I suppose I may learn. I doubt Grandpa would have much in the way of reading material on the matter, though…" She noted, gazing at the ground.

"He also happened to say that looking at last year might be helpful." Yu added, suddenly finding Naoto at full attention. "Yeah, just like Teddie suggested. Looks like he might be onto something after all." He said, rubbing his chin in thought with his free hand. Onto something they may have been, but _what?_

The rate at which clues were beginning to pile up was becoming too rapid to ignore. "In that case, I think it'd be wise if we sought out the area Teddie mentioned within the TV, as soon as possible. I'll contact everyone and-"

She was cut off midway to her cellphone as Yu raised a hand. "I'll take care of that. In the meantime, why don't you think about what the Tarot stuff meant? I'll text you the details later, then we can compare notes." Well, leader's orders, there was no use fighting it. An affirmative nod from the both of them solidified their plans proper.

It took a moment in the following silence for Yu to notice that the umbrella had stopped making such a racket. "Oh, looks like the rain's clearing up. We'd probably be better off getting back to Junes before it starts up again." Yu suggested as he began walking off.

"Actually, Senpai…" Yu peered over his shoulder, head cocked. "Go on without me. I have some other matters to attend to here. I'll be right along afterwards." Her back was already turned and her cap pitched down before Yu could even inquire further, taking off down the street without looking back.

Well, whatever floated her boat. _"Probably going to look for a book on Tarot cards or something."_ Yu thought to himself.

...Hang on, wasn't the bookstore the _other_ way down the street?

* * *

"Euurgh…"

"Didn't I say you never had a chance?" Chie boasted smugly between chews.

"That's what you get for being such a greedy-guts, Astaire-kun." Rise shrugged.

It wasn't greed so much as a lack of any comparable sustenance for as long as Astaire could remember. Who could resist wolfing down everything after never having eaten? Evidently, someone who tried such an approach on the Rainy Day Special, if Astaire was anything to go by. He'd never experienced a food coma before, but it made him wish someone would impale him again just to give the food somewhere to go.

Defeatedly slumped in his chair, barely able to move a muscle, Astaire could do little but follow Chie's hand in horror as she continued putting food away, a dire look on his face. "I'm beginning to suspect that I'd rather take another Washing Pole to the back than try eating that again." He managed to say, his mouth being the only part of him willing to move.

Chie stopped mid-chew, a stray bit of beef hanging from her mouth. "Take a what to the where now?"

As much as he'd liked to have elucidated, Astaire had felt better bleeding out on the ground than he did now. That much was evident just by looking at him, leaving Rise in charge of the explanation. Seeing as telling everyone in Aiya that Astaire had torn up the kids' playground didn't seem like the best idea, she kept her tone hushed.

She wasn't even done with the story and Chie had already forgotten about the beef bowl, having instead turned her full attention to Rise's retelling of the battle. "...and then, he went behind him when his guard was down and just ran his sword all the way through his back!" She continued, pointing at her chest and motioning how the blade had travelled.

This fact earned Astaire another of those looks from Chie. One of those ones Rise had given him when he'd recounted how the Undead Burg had went. That look of "How the hell are you still alive after that?" He didn't know what else to do but shrug. Never mind how it happened, just be thankful that it did.

"...and then he dropped to the ground, and didn't get up. He just fell like a ragdoll, and then the spirit turned to the door and started kicking and kicking and the kids and I didn't know what to do and he just wouldn't get up and-!"

"Woah, woah, take a breath, Rise-chan!" Her mania quickly getting out of hand, Chie had given her shoulder a shake to snap out of it.

It stopped her mad rambling, but it didn't stem the tears which had formed around her eyes. "I'm sorry, it's… It was just so scary! I thought he'd-! That the kids and I were going to-!" She tried to say it, but couldn't. She stopped herself as the tears overwhelmed her, memories of that exact moment replaying in her head again.

She wasn't fully bawling, but she afforded a light sob or two as she dried her eyes. It was enough to pick at Astaire's heart yet again. He'd seen her after all had been said and done, but he'd no idea how hopeless a situation it had looked to everyone else in the thick of it.

He honestly wasn't sure how to interpret it. Nobody had ever shed tears over any death of his before now. "Anyway, I got back up and sent him back whence he came. That was all." He summarised, now having balanced out his blood-beef ratio. No point in Rise fighting off more tears to finish it herself.

Yet Chie looked between the two of them with eyes wide. "It got that bad and you still got up and finished it off?" Another one of those looks to ensure Astaire was, in fact, not dead. "Holy cow. People from your world are really something, Astaire-kun."

"You don't know the half of it."

As Rise collected herself, Chie found her eyes drawn to the glasses that they'd confiscated earlier. She picked them up with the hand not supporting her head, examining them from a few angles. "Oh yeah, what's up with the spacing out over these? Something wrong with them?"

"I believe so. They make me feel… odd, for some reason." Astaire began, his brow creasing as he shot a pointed look back at Chie. "A reason I believe I'd almost deduced, until _somebody_ thought it wise to bury me in sauce parcels."

A practiced flick splayed open the legs of the glasses in Chie's hand as she gave them a curious look, finally settling on putting them on. "Oh my gosh, wow!"

"What? What is it?!" Astaire and Rise both asked in unison, practically jumping down her throat.

"...They're completely normal. Just like my pair." Her dinner partners slunk disappointedly back into their respective chairs, heads back as they groaned. "C'mon Rise-chan, try them on." She said as she offered the glasses to her kouhai.

Well, Chie-senpai seemed fine. No reason she shouldn't have been the same. She popped the glasses on eagerly. "Huh, you're right. Nothing out of the ordinary here." Just as Chie had said, sans colour they were just like her own. However, it wasn't like Astaire was lying. Something certainly _had_ happened earlier, she'd seen it herself. "Maybe it was a one-time thing. Hold on a second."

Before he knew what was happening, Rise had leaned across the table and placed the glasses on his own face. As soon as the frames lined up with his eyes, it happened again. His coat seemed to suddenly weigh down harder on him, his body suddenly bereft of energy as he slumped back down in his chair. "It wasn't a one-time thing, Ms. Kujikawa." He mumbled lethargically.

Off. Astaire was fine, felt like a million souls. On. Bluuuuurgh. Off. Fine. On. Bluuuuurgh. Off-

"Alright, that's quite enough of that, thank you!" Astaire insisted, ducking away from Rise's next attempt frantically. "I don't know how I feel but I'd much rather save it for the walk back, if you don't mind!"

Mention of the walk back spurred Chie into looking at her phone, loathe though she was to stop watching Rise tease Astaire with his own glasses. "Oh shoot, it's that late?! I've gotta run off all this food!" She quickly slapped out a number of 1000 yen bills, eyes lingering sadly on the occupied bowl as she longed for the day she could finish it and eat for free. "I'll see you two later, but right now I've got a patrol to be continuing! Later!" And with that, Chie Satonaka bolted into the night, not even waiting to close the door after her.

Rise and Astaire blinked. She'd taken off so fast it hardly seemed real. Chie was to running as Astaire was to changing clothes, it seemed. "Well, I guess we'd better head back too. It _is_ getting late, after all. Don't wanna get caught outside Junes without Yosuke's master key." Swiping up the bills Chie'd left and going over to pay for the rest.

Both bowls of beef lay cold and unfinished. If he hadn't recently challenged one to a bout and lost, Astaire might have felt worse about it. For the amount of large enemies he'd successfully defeated, for something bowl-sized to have brought about his downfall was a little embarrassing. _"Mark my words, Rainy Day Special, you can't best me forever."_ He thought inwardly.

But now wasn't the time for revenge. Not yet, at least. The well-fed knight stretched himself out in his chair before getting up. As he pushed his chair in, a familiar sight from through the open door caught his eye. "I say, isn't that Ms. Shirogane?"

The tab paid, Rise's head shot around so quickly that she risked slapping herself with her own pigtails. A possessed look found its way to her eyes at the knight's words. A similarly possessed stare outside confirmed them. Naoto Shirogane had just passed by Aiya without noticing the both of them.

For the briefest of moments, Rise's mind was sent racing. Like the mind of a skilled mathematician, threaded details wove together in her head, stitching a tapestry upon which the final thought was sure to form.

Naoto was in the shopping district. Alone. At night. She didn't know they were there. She was walking down the street away from the bookstore. She wasn't stopping for food. That could have meant only one thing.

She was heading for Tatsumi Textiles.

To Kanji.

Fear gripped Astaire as something clawed at his shoulder. A fear comparable only to that produced by the Abyss itself. He dared to turn his head, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks as he came face to face with a demon bearing an uncanny resemblance to Rise. _"Astaire-kun."_ It uttered, a cheshire grin spread on its face. _"We need to follow Naoto-kun right now."_

To this day, there exists no word in the languages of men, giant, god or beast to properly convey the unbridled, primal terror set upon Knight Astaire that very moment.

* * *

This was ridiculous. Yu-senpai had already assured her that he'd contact everyone about the upcoming expedition when he returned home. There was no reason to be here. Just head back already.

Such thoughts buzzed around in Naoto's head like an irksome fly, and had been doing so all the way up the street. No matter how much her brain tried assuring her that such a course of action was illogical, her body kept on walking anyway.

No, of course there was a reason. She was so close to Tatsumi Textiles that she might as well tell Kanji ahead of time. There was nothing wrong with him being able to better prepare himself.

Then again, that didn't require a physical visit. She had his number after all, it would be all too easy to message him about the events. But at that rate she might as well just text everyone at once and let them all...

Naoto sighed. This was ridiculous.

Tarot cards. Kanji's mother seemed like a cultured sort of person, maybe she had a book on the subject. The bookstore down the road would be closing soon, chances are she'd miss it altogether. This was a better option by far. Ignoring the fact that she didn't even know if Kanji's mother owned the book. Also ignoring the fact that she'd have gotten to the bookstore in plenty of time had she not set off towards Tatsumi Textiles instead.

"N-Naoto? The hell you doin' here?"

Naoto blinked out of her contemplation like a balloon had been popped in her face. Kanji stood at the door of Tatsumi Textiles, which she distinctly remembered not being in front of when she'd started her musing.

Never mind how she got here, she was here all the same. Naoto quickly concealed her surprise under the brim of her hat as best she could. "Good evening, Kanji-kun. I imagine you're doing well?"

Kanji shifted uncomfortably in the doorway. "I-I guess." Don't, don't, _don't_ ask why she was imagining that in the first place. Probably just being polite. That was it.

The silence set in quickly.

"I came to inform you that we'll be going into the TV World sometime soon. We have reason to believe there's something worth investigating inside, possibly related to the odd occurrences that've happened over the past few days." Naoto finally said, hand lowering from her hat.

"Really? Huh." Kanji glanced off to the side and rubbed the back of his head. "I mean, that's cool and all, but, uh…" He paused, noticing the quizzical look Naoto shot him. "...Couldn't you have just messaged everyone about it? No reason to come all this way just to tell me."

Just as Naoto had told herself. She shook the thought out of her head. "I merely happened to be passing by as a result of another investigation." She lied. "I felt that, being as close by as I was, I might as well let you know ahead of time."

Whatever hint of deception had snuck into her explanation, it seemed to satisfy Kanji. He seemed to relax a bit as his arms returned to the side of the doorway. "S-Sure. Thanks for the heads up."

The silence loomed once again.

"Hey, uh-"

"I was wonder-"

Both started and stopped in unison. "Y-You first." Kanji stammered out.

Naoto cleared her throat. "I was wondering if you happened to possess any books on Tarot cards."

He'd probably think it was a stupid request. Coming to a textile shop for knowledge on soothsaying. He'd think it was stupid because it _was_ stupid. Why had she thought this was a good idea? Who did she think she was- "Yeah, sure. Gimmie a minute."

Kanji dislodged himself from the doorway, turning just in time to miss the severe look of surprise on Naoto's face. He disappeared into a room at the back and, after a period of rummaging, reappeared with a thick, navy-coloured book. From the trace of dust that had escaped being wiped off, it was clear it hadn't been used for a while. "Here ya go."

Though she held out a hand and accepted the book, Naoto gazed at it like it had grown eyes and gazed back. "You actually had one? Of what benefit is a book on Tarot cards to a Textile store?" She asked, still in disbelief at what she was holding.

"My old lady bought it ages ago for some stupid reason. Sat gathering dust in the back ever since." It was only after answering the question that Kanji took notice of Naoto's general tone and shock. "What? You come askin' for a book when you didn't think we'd have it? The hell is that about?"

Yeah, what _was_ that about? Again, Naoto shook the thought aside, harder this time. "Forgive me. Thank you for the book, Kanji-kun." Again, reaching for the hat was her first response.

Sadly, no amount of hat-brim-ducking-under shenanigans could wist away legitimate questions. "Whaddya even need that thing for, anyway? Thought detectives were all clues and evidence, not fortune-telling." Kanji asked, looking puzzled.

"Senpai received a fortune pertaining to our current situation from the Velvet Room. He asked me to try and interpret what it might mean." She admitted, running her hand up and down the spine of the book, her eyes still fixed on it.

Another answer, another puzzled expression. "He did? Do you even know much about Tarot cards and stuff?" She looked at him, brow lowered, then tapped the book. "Oh, right. Too bad you couldn't just get a straight answer out of 'em."

"My sentiments exactly." Naoto agreed, pinching the bridge of her nose exasperatedly. "I'll admit, I'm beginning to wish I'd declined Senpai's request…" She opened the book and quickly thumbed through the pages. "I'd rather not be bogged down having to read this while keeping track of all the other details of this case." Of which the pile just kept getting bigger. Just thinking about it made Naoto feel tired.

Kanji ran a hand down his face, his lower lip between his teeth. "How 'bout I read it then? Save you the trouble." The two looked at each other for a beat before Kanji's expression caved. "Alright, so maybe I ain't the best one to be askin' to read stuff. Feel like I gotta do something though, I lent you the damn book."

The thought entered Naoto's head and slid out before she could stop it. "What if we analysed it together?"

* * *

"YES!" Rise kept her voice as quiet as she could, but couldn't resist the rise in pitch, just short of a dog whistle. "I knew it! I just knew I knew it! Oh, isn't it great, Astaire-kun?!" She enthused, lightly tapping him on the side.

While her own expression could have lit up the entire street as she peeked around the edge of the wall, the same couldn't be said for the face that peeked out above hers. "Something about this seems a little more intrusive than I'm comfortable with."

"You don't understand! This is the culmination of a whole lot of hard work on my part! It's my right to see how this plays out!"

"You say that, but I can't help feeling like this is taking that sentiment a little far."

"I've known them for long enough that eavesdropping is a given, don't worry!"

Astaire sighed. "I'm not the expert on social graces here, but that doesn't sound right, even to my ears." He slowly slowly reeled back around the corner, resting his back against the wall and folding his arms. "Whatever you like, I suppose. I can only imagine Kanji would be a bit more respectful of our privacy if our positions were-"

"Ohmigosh!" Again with the dog-whistle pitch. "Ohmigosh ohmigosh ohmigosh!" Rise pried herself away, stars in her eyes. "They totally just arranged to meet up in the city and talk about things over coffee!" She fanned her face, gazing at the ground and pacing in a small circle. "This is so, so, _so_ great! I can hardly believe it!"

"Nor can I, given 'things' could refer to anything under the sun." Astaire said, entirely deadpan. "They could simply be meeting up to talk about-" Astaire ground to a halt as Rise's slender hands roughly grasped him by the lapels of his coat.

"There's only one thing two people do when they go way, way out of their way to meet up for coffee, and it's not to talk about the weather!" Rise insisted, rocking her taller companion back and forth on the spot.

"Could you please stop doing that?"

"It's a date, Astaire-kun! Naoto-kun and Kanji-kun are going on a date! This is serious business!" It was only after saying it that Rise had a thought. Immediately her shaking halted, her eyes meeting Astaire's as he looked completely stumped. "You… you _do_ know what a date isdon't you?"

"Well it's settled, then." Naoto concluded, back straight and every other part of her stiff as a board. "I look forward to hearing your thoughts on your findings. Goodnight, Kanji-kun." She said quickly, abruptly turning on her heel and beginning the walk home.

Kanji felt unable to do much more than lightly wave at her back. "Y-Yeah, night." He returned, thankful that it was too dark to see how flushed his face was. He quickly turned and shut the door behind him, still a little shell shocked after what had just happened. He and Naoto. Meeting in Okina. Holy shit.

Wait, no. No, no, no. It was about those cards, nothing else. That was the reason.

Didn't seem like something they couldn't do at Junes or something, though. Hell was with that?

Either way, it'd be a bad idea to show up empty handed. Finish up cleaning the store and get looking into that tarot stuff, that's what he'd do.

" _Hold up."_ Kanji realised, stopping dead in his tracks. _"She just took the frickin' book I need to read up on this shit!"_

While Kanji lamented giving away an old book on the one occasion where he'd actually need it, Naoto was busy making a beeline for Junes.

It had to have been in the heat of the moment. That was it. Feeling guilty for barging in so late in the evening and asking Kanji for something she'd never even expected him to have. That on its own was nonsensical. This was…

"...and it's gotta be somewhere romantic! Like the park with a bouquet of roses! Or going to see a movie or something!"

Hm. There was that. She _had_ been meaning to go to the theatre in Okina and…

Wait a minute. Just who was she hearing?

Walking further on down the street, Naoto's eyebrows raised as she locked eyes with Astaire, his eyes like dinner plates as Rise rambled on and on in front of him, a finger raised as she instructed him on matters pertaining to… something.

Finally feeling like he could make a move, Astaire carefully tapped Rise on the shoulder. She paused mid-tirade, swinging around on the spot as he pointed behind her. Now both their eyes were wide. "Oh! H-Hey Naoto-kun!"

Naoto narrowed her eyes. "Rise-chan. Astaire-kun." She added a nod out of courtesy. "Might I ask what you two are doing here at this time of night?"

Busted.

"Well, uh… We were out for something to eat with Chie-senpai, see? And then we thought we'd…" Sit behind a wall and listen to you invite Kanji out on a date after the best part of a year being just as dense as each other?

Damnit, no. That was the truth. They needed one of the other things, the things that didn't happen. Yet as much as Rise tried recalling some of her mathematical calculation powers from earlier, she drew a blank. Why else would that have been here?

"I believe I heard you mentioning something about romantically going to the park? Or was it the movies?" Now it was Astaire's turn to go stiff as a board. "Far be it from me to advise others on their love lives, but I think I'd be right in saying there are better places to discuss such things. Especially when it's you, Rise-chan."

* * *

"Didn't I tell you earlier that I'm a knight and not a steed?!" Astaire said, now doubled over just as he had been earlier.

"You just took off out of nowhere! How do you expect me to keep up when you're so much taller than me?!" Rise said, slipping off his back as they came to rest outside Junes. "There were better ways out of that than dashing off like you stole something, you know!"

Astaire straightened himself out, arcing himself backwards as his back cracked. "Either way, it _is_ getting late. We'd have ended up back here sooner or later as it was." He grunted, still a little surprised that he'd remembered the way back to Junes at all.

Rise sighed as they entered the thankfully empty elevator. "Yeah, I guess that's true. But still! Now Naoto-kun's going to think we're…!" She trailed off. From the way Astaire was hiding his face it was a safe bet to say he knew _exactly_ what Naoto would think. "I mean, it could be worse. Out of everyone, Naoto-kun would be the last to blab about it."

As much as he wanted to forcefully remind her that there was nothing to blab about in reality, Astaire caught himself on. "If that's the case, I daresay it's a good sight better than her finding out why you were really there." The elevator pinged, inviting them out into Junes proper, electronics department well in sight.

An elbow impacted off Astaire's side. "What do you mean 'why _I_ was there?' Don't act like you weren't listening in too!"

"I most certainly wasn't! I only came along because some demonic entity with pigtails had me under duress, it was that or be rent asunder there and then!" He reminded the little demoness at his side as he loomed over her, eyes narrowed.

Her giggle in response quickly set him straight. "Oh really? I thought big, strong knights like you were supposed to fight off demons pretty much seven days a week! Am I finally the first to beat you after all this time?" She cooed as she teasingly leaned her head into his arm. Junes was quiet this late in the evening, she could get away with it.

As much as he wanted to point out that killing demons was easier when they weren't as unbearably cute as Rise was, Astaire quickly held his tongue. This was a fight he'd just have to lose. "It seems that you are." He admitted with a smile, quickly jerking his arm away lest her demonic influence do anything else to him.

The duo stopped in front of the familiar TV set, eyes set on their reflections in the glass. This was it. The moment of truth. Rise gripped Astaire's wrist and looked up at him, expression hard. "You ready?" He nodded back, holding his glasses just shy of his nose. "Alright. Let's go."

The moment the lenses lined up with his eyes, Astaire felt the odd sensation from earlier come back in spades. It was like getting punched by some unseen assailant and having the wind knocked from his chest, with the exception that it never came back afterwards. The best way he could describe it was that he just felt… weaker, somehow.

Yet as the two of them touched down on the usual studio-esque landing spot, it became clear that whatever was wrong was a tap on the nose compared to TV Sickness.

"Still feeling funny?" Rise asked, though in truth the change was evident just to look at him. The fact that he was standing on his own two feet was already a marked improvement.

Astaire rolled his shoulders, twisted his neck, stretched his fingers, anything he could think of. Physically he appeared to be right as rain. Even mentally, he felt like he'd just stepped out of a warm shower. Save for the perplexing heaviness his coat was giving him, he'd never felt better. "Funny, but a different kind of funny. A better kind than I had earlier, at any rate." He shrugged. "Maybe after wearing them on the way back I'll feel a tad better."

Well, the glasses were doing _something_ right. Rise nodded happily, pushing her own glasses up her nose as the two made off for the forest.

* * *

As Rise and Astaire neared their destination, the strange glasses-induced feeling failed to give way. It was far, _far_ better than the alternative; Astaire was hard enough to carry as it was. Even still, it didn't explain what exactly the glasses were doing, and taking them off for another thorough examination wasn't really an option.

Thoughts of his progress in Aiya came to mind. 'Lessens the effects of...' something. What exactly could it be lessening? The sickness was gone, so it lessened the effects of the TV World, but that wouldn't explain why they were also making him weaker.

So deep in the well of cogitation was he that Astaire barely registered the statue in front of him as he walked straight into it, teetering backwards as he regained his bearings. "Oh. Oh my." He murmured as he drew his head back.

When the two of them had first entered the TV, there were two statues. Now there were _eight_ of them. Some of which conjuring up a storm of feelings so muddled that neither Rise nor Astaire knew which to address first.

The two of them holding hands, as they'd done in the mansion. It was parallel to a statue of Rise barely dragging him through the TV world. "Oh yeah, you'd have missed these, wouldn't you? The last two times we've been through here, you were still feeling sick." Rise pointed out, noticeably less flustered about the _bloody massive statue of the two of them holding hands_ than Astaire was. "These ones, though... ? Uh…"

She'd passed by the statue of Astaire beating the daylights out of two reporters, almost actively avoiding eye contact with it, and instead had placed her hand on its parallel cousin. An image of Astaire being run through with the Washing Pole, a mound of children reaching up from his feet towards him. "I say. If it weren't depicting me almost getting myself killed I'd have given my compliments to the artist." Astaire commented, pushing his glasses up his nose.

Finally, the newest two. Rise hiding her face as Astaire and her grandmother laughed, and Astaire and Kanji sitting and gazing at the sky together.

"Looks like you and Kanji-kun are getting along well! Must've been a good conversation if it ended up here." Rise again drew her attention away from the other statue, bringing focus to the other. "What were the two of you talking about?"

"Nothing." Astaire said entirely too quickly.

Oh, Gods. Rise turned with a sly look in her eye, remarkably similar to the one her Grandmother had been wearing earlier. He'd messed up. She was on to him. She sauntered towards him slowly, arms folded across her chest. "Oh, is that so?" Her lips curled into a smirk as she raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? Looks like everything else shown here is kind of… important? Emotional? Something like that. So why would you two talking about nothing be here?"

There just wasn't an answer. Not one Astaire felt right giving, anyway. Divert her attention. Find something to get her off the topic. Something, _anything._ Even an inkling.

Suddenly, an idea. "I'll answer you if you answer me first." Astaire pointed up at the statue behind him, the one with Rise, himself and her grandmother. "Why were you covering your face earlier? And again, what exactly is a 'keeper' supposed to be?"

Rise opened her mouth as if to say something before it shut again. Her eyes widened and darted to and fro. "Wh-What?! That's not fair, I asked you first!" Her fists balled up just like they had earlier in front of her Grandmother.

"Ah-hah! I tried asking you what a keeper was back before we ate, so I've got you beat!" Astaire pointed out, a satisfied grin on his face.

Rise looked up at the statue, then at Astaire. Statue. Knight. Ground. Statue. Statue some more.

Finally, she narrowed her eyes and pouted. "Alright, you're off the hook."

A fresh sip from an Estus Flask could only scratch the levels of relief Astaire felt. "So too are you, apparently." He said, resisting the urge to sigh out loud in relief as he followed Rise through the exit.

* * *

Sleep wasn't coming easily. The surge of energy after taking the glasses off proved especially unhelpful in that regard. Rolling about on the floor didn't help things much, but ever still Astaire felt compelled to do so. He alternated between staring up at the ceiling, staring out at the moon hanging in the sky, and trying to avoid banging his head off the footboard of Rise's bed. In the rare few moments he stopped moving, the silence beyond Rise's light breaths was deafening.

Deafening silence gave way to ever more internal cogitating. More and more worries which dredged up alongside the moon. Questions and woes he had no answer to, yet kept ruminating on regardless. Though the room was silent, the voice in his head rung loud and true.

That was, until another voice cut in. "Astaire-kun…" Rise murmured from the bed above.

Whoever was paying to use the room below Rise's would've had good grounds to file a noise complaint, because Astaire swore he could feel his heart punch right out of his chest and begin assaulting the floor. She was asleep. She was saying his name in her sleep. Gods above. _Gods above._

"...I can't get to sleep if you keep rolling around like that…" Rise sleepily added.

Oh, right. She wasn't asleep after all. Though his heart was still having a boxing match with his ribs, Astaire felt somewhat relieved. If she _had_ been saying his name in her sleep, he might not have nodded off the entire night. "Apologies. I just can't seem to doze off proper."

"Something on your mind?" She sounded a little more awake now. Evidently neither of them were getting much sleep at this rate. "C'mon, skooch up here." Astaire's head rounded the footboard to see a dainty hand jutting out from under the covers and pointing at the floor below it. Well, he'd no reason not to. Astaire scuttled over on his hands and knees, lying parallel to Rise herself. Or at least the half of Rise's face which peeked out through a gap in her covers. "Good. Now tell me what's been rolling you around for the past half an hour."

Astaire lay back and entwined his fingers behind his head. "I'm simply thinking a tad too much, that's all."

"About what?"

He glanced away towards the wall. "Nothing a knight shouldn't be able to handle on their own."

The bedclothes shifted as Rise pouted underneath. "What did I tell you? Before you're a knight or anything else, you're a friend. Friends tell each other stuff like that." Though she said it, Astaire didn't follow up with anything. She let out a frustrated noise as she rolled over onto her other side. "Fine, don't tell me. Guess between this and the statues you can't tell me anything."

"No, it's…!" Astaire trailed of as he massaged the bridge of his nose. Talking things over might have been what friends did, but he'd been a knight long before he'd been anyone's friend, as far as he was aware. Maybe it was about time that changed. "...It's my shadow," He finally resumed, glad to see Rise's single eye shift around to meet his. "It speaks to me every night. Torments me in my dreams when it hasn't hijacked them entirely."

"You're scared, aren't you?"

A denial was halfway past his lips before he even consciously formed one. If it were anyone else, he might have let it slip by unhindered. But not now. It was time to start being more of a friend. "...Yes. I am."

Rise's eye widened slightly before quickly settling. "It's okay to be scared. I was scared of mine too."

Now it was Astaire's turn to be wide eyed. "You had one as well?"

"Yeah. Everyone on the team did, save for Senpai." Somewhere under the covers, Rise shifted uncomfortably. "It's… not the sort of thing the others like asking about. They're too… personal. Like a mirror that reflects who you are deep down, in the absolute worst light possible."

That answered Astaire's next question before he'd even asked it. He rested his head back and resumed looking at the ceiling.

"Mine was a stripper."

Astaire blinked. "A… I'm sorry, what?"

Rise let out a hasty breath. Of course she'd be reciting this to the one person who needed it said out loud. "Someone who takes off their clothes until there's not much left to the imagination."

 _Good Gods in Heaven above._ A loud thump sounded off the floor as Astaire's hands forgot to keep hold of his head. How could such an occupation exist? How could Rise's shadow resemble one in any way? He buried his face in the carpet as he tried ever so desperately to not picture what it might have looked like.

"It wasn't because I was… y'know, someone who _got around._ I wanted people to see the real me. Not the girl on the posters, on TV, in movies or in music videos, none of those. I wanted people to see the real me as much as I wanted to assure myself she existed in the first place." Even from down below, Astaire could see her curl up into a ball under the covers. She wasn't enjoying this. "Then Senpai and everyone else came to help me. I realised that there isn't any real me. All of those other Rises were just different sides of me, after all. There wasn't a real self to show because none of the others were fake."

Astaire looked at her in awe as she buried her face in her bed to hide the flush. Just like he'd done earlier when thinking of her earlier. When he had thoughts so shameful and personal that he couldn't stand facing the girl they were about. "Goodness." He finally managed, after a long silence. "And here I was thinking I was the stronger out of the two of us."

That brought her back into view. "Huh?" The wide eye managed to say.

"Facing that debauched image of yourself. Coming to terms with what it meant. Why, even being able to recount it back to me now. I'm impressed." He said, eyes wide and genuine.

"W-Well, you know…" Rise began, shifting about again. "We all saw yours, after all. It's only fair..."

"You yourself said it was a personal affair, didn't you? I very much doubt I'd get such an explanation from anyone else if I asked about their shadows." Not that he was stupid enough to ask the likes of Yukiko or Chie in the first place. "Thank you for telling me, truly."

Rise snuggled a bit further into her covers, now suddenly fascinated by every area that wasn't occupied by Astaire himself. "I-It's really not that big a deal, honest!" She lied entirely, glad only a fraction of her face was showing.

The two sat in silence for a while after, one looking at the other gazing thoughtfully up at the ceiling. "No real self, hm?" Astaire wondered out loud. "I wonder if that'd be the same for me." He met half of Rise's questioning gaze and carried on. "My shadow knows a lot about me that I don't. If it truly _is_ me, I can only guess that accepting it would help me remember my supposed past lives as well. But…" He trailed off, eyes on the floor. "...if all these past selves are truly as different from myself as they are, what would gaining their memories do? If we were all so different, would an amalgamation of such even _be_ me anymore?"

Rise hummed to herself. It sounded _kind of_ similar to her situation, but she'd been aware of her other selves. She hadn't undergone some kind of partial-memory-wiping weird world reset situation, how could she even begin to guess what that would do to someone?

The simple answer was that she couldn't. The simple solution, then, was to trust her gut. "Sure you would be!" She began, finally freeing herself from her fabric cocoon and sitting upright, arms supporting her. "Even if you don't remember, you must've had a good reason to change so much, I just know it! And even if you didn't, all of that changing led up to you becoming the you that you are now! Just because you changed over time doesn't mean you're not still you!"

Astaire was dumbfounded, able only to sit with his mouth parted and eyes wide. Not only because _Gwyn's beard did Rise look heart-stopping with her hair down_ , but because she'd struck at the heart of his worries after barely even hearing about them. Like a musician soothing a savage beast after first picking up the instrument. He tried to respond, but no words could express how he felt. None that he knew of, anyway.

After a while, he settled on a nod. "Right. I'd trust any conclusion you came to more than my own." He admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "I might not be as strong as you were, facing your shadow immediately, but I think your words will make it a tad easier." He looked up and pumped a fist much like Chie had done earlier."Thank you. Again."

Rise giggled genuinely as she lay back on her side, propping her head up with her arm. "See? Being a friend before bring a knight isn't so bad after all, is it?"

Given the weight that was now absent from his chest, the answer was clear. "Indeed. I daresay it's not that bad at all." The two lay back down, both now feeling the onset of sleep begin to wade in from afar. "Say, Ms. Kujikawa?" Rise rolled her head over sleepily. "Is it… alright for me to stay here? In this room with you, that is." He rolled over, all of a sudden not quite as comfortable as he'd been. "I mean, I didn't really ask permission. It just sort of happened after I came here. Should you wish me to stay elsewhere, I'll-"

"I'll be honest." Rise interjected softly, eyes still closed. "Everyone in Inaba is so far away. I only really see Kanami and everyone else when we're working, and when I come back here, it's just me on my own. It's kinda nice having someone around to talk to all the time." She pulled her covers up over her face, leaning into the pillow. "I'd… like it if you stayed with me a little while longer." A beat followed where she could tell all too well that Astaire was wide-eyed again. "B-Besides! It's like Yosuke-senpai's situation with Teddie, right? It's not like you have anywhere else to go!" She quickly added.

The addition proved useful when beating away the red tint on Astaire's cheeks after the statement before it. He calmed down and let out a light chuckle. "Sounds like something else that friends get up to, if those two are at it. I suppose I just need to get used to it, still."

"Being friends is easy." Compared to being a knight, at least. "You just need to… y'know, loosen up. Stop bottling everything away and be a little more open with people. Don't run away from who you are." Like she had. Memories of talking to Yu welled up as she remembered coming to the similar conclusion a long time ago.

Stop bottling up. Be more honest. The words jostled and jumped around in Astaire's head as he looked over at the moonlight on the floor. Stop hiding things. Rise had opened up to him, surely he could do the same. Assuming what he was hiding was something that was appropriate to bring up.

No, no bottling it up. He had to start somewhere, even if it was just something small.

Telling himself that didn't make his throat feel any less tight at the thought of it, however. "S-Say, Ms. Kujikawa?" He managed to force out, about ready to cram a mace down his throat if it'd make it any easier.

"Hm?" She replied, now rolled over with her back to him.

Thank Gwyn for that, as if this wasn't hard enough already. "I, uh… I t-think…" Oh Gods. She was rolling over. No doubt wondering why he was stammering like a loon. If she turned to face him now he'd never spit it out. Welling up every ounce of courage he had, (while at the same time resisting the urge to bellow full-force) Astaire closed his eyes and braced.

" _You look nice with your hair down!"_

How the entire room wasn't lit up crimson was anybody's guess.

It took a couple of blinks for Rise to realise what'd just happened. She'd heard what'd been said. She'd seen the one who said it. Yet the connection that _Astaire was the one who'd said it_ simply seemed far too outlandish to even consider.

At the same time, he was the only other person there. It couldn't have been anyone else. A fact which served to redden Rise's face too, once the thought settled in. "R-Really? You think so?" She answered at a pitch far too high to be considered casual. Astaire had quickly rolled his back to her once he'd spoken, but the single, sharp nod he gave in return said all he needed. Eyebrows still raised, Rise played with a stray lock of hair as she attempted a response. "Uh…" She wavered uncharacteristically "...Thanks, Astaire-kun. Goodnight."

It had been harder to settle on an answer than she'd thought. Nothing more needing to be said between the two of them, both roommates finally found themselves able to rest easy.

For the first time since he'd come to their world, Astaire's shadow remained remarkably silent.


	11. "Hello, my name is Kaoru Airashi."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A swordfight, a tantrum, and a world beyond the trees.

Helping others work out their psychological issues seemed to be a wonderful sleeping aid, if Rise was anything to go by. The sunlight had begun warming her feet under the covers just as her phone began vibrating on the bedside table, just before she quickly snatched it up and cancelled the alarm.

Yeah, that was right. Without hitting snooze. A small victory though it was, Rise still smiled about it gleefully as she stretched her arms past her tangled mess of hair and above her head. She tried her best to work out some of the tangles on the way down as she racked her brain over why she'd been tossing and turning as much in the first place. Hair didn't just tangle itself.

Pfft, whatever. Sleep was sleep, who knew why they did anything? Putting it out of her mind, Rise tapped her phone to life. Her eyes lit up as the name "xSenpai~!x" sat above an unopened text message, sent some time early in the morning.

" _Really gotta change that name sometime soon."_ Rise thought to herself, opening the message in the meantime. Her eyes scanned to and fro, brows raising with each line progressed. "No way… no way!"

They were going into the TV for an expedition. Specifically, in the area Astaire had made upon first going inside. The Statue Grove. At the very least, it didn't sound like anything too intensive or serious. Just going in to check out what was there, on the off chance something meaningful lay further in. That wasn't the part that concerned Rise.

What concerned her was that everyone was going to be looking at those statues. Astaire beating the snot out of reporters. The two of them holding hands. And worst of all, _her looking embarrassed in front of him and her Grandmother._

This had progressed past worrisome. Rise's embarrassed face? The one she made other people make instead, now etched in stone? This had been fully upgraded to _serious freaking business._ Why was it that bad? Well, she'd have to explain. What could possibly have moved Rise Kujikawa of all people to hiding her face?

She'd have to explain. Explain what she was talking about to her Grandmother. _Who_ she wound up talking about to her Grandmother, and in what glowing terms. Oh _Hell_ no.

"Astaire-kun, Astaire-kun, get up!" She bolted upright and flung her covers off, whipping her legs around to the side of the bed. "I just got a text from Senpai! He says we're all going to meet up and-!"

Rise choked back her surprise as her foot landed full-force onto something that wasn't the floor. "AAGH, DAMN IT ALL!"

* * *

"...and that's how I wound up looking like this. Ow." Astaire lamented, lightly touching the large bruise under his eye and recoiling because, lo and behold, it hurt just as much as it had the last time he touched it. "If Ms. Kujikawa's kicking is that bad on her own I dread to think what Ms. Satonaka's like." He shuddered as he pictured being on the end of a pair of armoured greaves to the face.

"Wow, that must've sucked." Kanami astutely guessed, swinging her legs atop the crate next to Astaire. "But hey, it could have been worse! Have you seen the heels Rise-senpai wears during rehearsal?" She motioned towards the stage with her head, where Rise and her backup dancers were trying to nail the choreography for the performance that'd been interrupted the day before.

True enough, Rise was strutting around - rather skillfully, Astaire noted, - on a pair of pink. painful-when-applied-to-the-face looking high heels. He flinched just at the thought alone. "Gods, I'd hesitate to even jest about such a thing. I'd be absent an eye if that were the case. Ow." He ran another hand over the bruise, recoiling once more.

Before he could do it again, Kanami slapped his hand down. "Stop touching it, you're making me feel sore just looking at you!" She hissed, hopping off the box in unison. She teetered on one leg as she peeked out at the stage again, giving a wide, goofy wave to Rise as she walked towards stage left. "Hey, looks like everyone's breaking for lunch!" She teetered back to two legs, sparkling her eyes up at Astaire. "Ooh, I know! We should try dancing again! It'll be more fun than poking yourself in the face all day~!" She sing-songed.

"I'd rather not, thank you." Astaire replied quickly and bluntly, arms folded.

This was unheard of. Anyone around the set who didn't dress like a salaryman _never_ resisted the Kanamin Beam! Kanami turned up the dial, sparkling like a sequin suit in the sun. "Eh?! You don't wanna hang out with me again? I was gonna let you listen to one of my favourite songs!"

Even amidst the overwhelming wall of sparkles, Astaire stood firm. "The only reason I'm flicking myself like a loon in the first place is to keep myself focused. If you want to dance by all means go ahead, but leave me out of it. I'm not having a repeat of yesterday. Ow." He said brusquely, aggravating his bruise again.

_Mayday, mayday. Sparkle capacity hitting maximum output levels. Further use may result in unknown side effects._

Damn the side effects! Nobody ignored the Kanamin Beam, _nobody!_ Kanami realised deep down that she'd have to use _it._ The big one. The pièce de résistance. The final weapon in her arsenal. She balled her fists tightly, knowing that she and everyone else on Earth may not survive. Still, it was a risk she just had to take.

"Uwaah…!" Tears flowed instantly, rolling down Kanami's cheeks like she were caught in a rainstorm. "You're telling me… that I'm troublesome? You don't wanna be around me in case I'm a bother? Is that it?!" She sniffed and bawled, wiping away her crocodile tears as her bottom lip quivered convincingly, the rest of her hunching over between deep sobs.

"Yes, that's about the height of it." A completely unmoved, stone-faced Astaire said flatly.

"Wow, you're kind of a jerk when you want to be, Astaire-kun." The tears disappeared as quickly as they'd come as Kanami placed her hands on her hips, looking completely fine. "You'll never get a girlfriend if that's how you treat them when they're crying." She said, poking him in the arm.

"It's called doing my job and keeping an eye out. Besides, you clearly weren't crying if you've recovered that quickly."

Kanami waggled her eyebrows and smirked. "I bet you wouldn't be saying that if Rise-senpai were the one crying."

" _Look._ " Astaire finally turned to face Kanami, who couldn't help but stifle a laugh after her goading worked. "I don't mean to be overtly rude, but could you please just leave me alone? I can't afford any distractions, not after yesterday. I'll dance with you some other time, but not now."

From the stairs above, a third voice interjected. "Well, how about dancing with _me,_ then?" A third voice which automatically made Astaire's blood boil. The two looked up, meeting the gently smiling face of Kaoru Airashi, shooting Astaire a wink. "Huh? How about it?"

"I'm busy." Astaire grunted, turning his back on him. From what he could hear behind him, it sounded like Kaoru was making for the stairs, but he wasn't the only one. A good two… no, three sets of footsteps accompanied his own. Admittedly intrigued, Astaire stole a glance to the side, where Kaoru had replaced Kanami. "...And who might they be?" Astaire motioned to the three girls now flanking her.

"Ah, how rude of me." Kaoru began, shaking his head. "These lovely ladies are Kida-chan, Haru-chan and Miyano-chan." The girls all giggled in unison as Kaoru addressed them, hand extended. "As you can see from their uniforms, they're co-stars of mine on set. We were just going to take a little break from filming just now."

Compared to how most other people dressed, the girls looked like they'd fit right in in Lordran. Modest and muted, the clothes wouldn't have looked out of place on, say, Reah of Thorolund, or maybe the Fire Keeper back at the shrine. "I'm going to be Madame Bonacieux!" Kida-chan chirped, waving around the base of her dress. "And Ka-kun is going to be d'Artagnan!" She practically squealed in delight, giggling again with her companions.

Kaoru laughed along with them until he noticed the distinctly unimpressed, blank look on Astaire's face. "Oh c'mon, you know! The Three Musketeers? Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d'Artagnan?" The blank look remained. "Ah, right. I shouldn't have thought you'd be that well read. Apologies, Astaire-kun." He said, gently smiling again as his groupies giggled behind him, hands to their mouths.

"Ka-kun, that's not nice!" Kanami stepped forward, pouting. "Don't tell me you came all this way just to be a meanie!"

Ever collected, Kaoru waved a dismissive hand at the sole non-groupie. "Ahaha, don't be silly, Kanami-chan. I came simply because I thought that someone of Astaire-kun's…" He glanced sideways at Astaire, who looked a little less blank and little more annoyed than before. "...talents, might be able to help me."

Astaire narrowed his eyes. "And what could you possibly be doing that would require my help?" He folded his arms ever tighter, not exactly looking in the most willing-to-help-out-others-ish mood.

"Oh, the usual! There's some photographers outside my room, I was wondering if you could come by and _persuade_ them within an inch of their lives to move." He said casually, quickly raising his arms in front of him as Astaire stood to his full height, fists clenched. "Kidding, kidding! You need to lighten up a little, Astaire-kun~!" He finished with a wink.

It caught Astaire's eye that Kanami was the only one not smiling. "Just tell me what you want already." He grunted again, sounding plenty fed up.

"Have you ever used a rapier before?"

If ever there had been a question Astaire had been anticipating from the like of the chestnut-haired tosser, it wasn't that. "Every now and then, yes." When beating stuff with big, slow greatswords didn't work, that was. "Whyever do you ask?"

From behind Kaoru, one of the girls produced a tall box and handed it to him. Popping off the top, Kaoru reached in and produced a finely-made, albeit blunt both on blade and tip, rapier. "Playing d'Artagnan, as I do, means you need to know how to handle a rapier properly." He gave an elegant flourish with the blade, sending his groupies wild. "Sword fights are a big part of the Three Musketeers, you know."

After a second of staring at the hilt, Astaire produced the other rapier, weighing it over in his hands. It was pathetic. Worthless. Bereft of both bite and soul. Even the flimsiest of weapons in Lordran had _some_ soul in them, but this? "What a useless weapon." Astaire couldn't help but say. He almost felt sorry for it.

He raised his head as Kaoru laughed at him. "It's a training weapon Astaire-kun, of course it's useless! Wouldn't want us hurting one another, would we?" He chuckled, jabbing and thrusting at the air before pointing at Astaire himself.

Kanami stepped forward again, pushing Kaoru's blade down. "Ka-kun, can't you just go and bother your trainers with this? It's not too late in the day, surely they'd still be around!" She insisted, ignoring the cloud of mumbled, no doubt biting comments his groupies were spouting under their breaths.

Again, with that gentle, innocent sounding laugh. "Oh they're here, I know they are! But…" Again, he raised his weapon to Astaire. "...I can tell they're very different from Astaire-kun. I want to see what someone like that can teach me, is all." Astaire met his gaze, still assessing the rapier. "I wouldn't worry about having a repeat of yesterday, if that's what's bothering you. The girls can keep an eye on things." He turned to his throng of groupies. "Can't you girls?"

They practically crawled over one another to answer him first. It appeared there really was no way out.

Astaire ran a hand over the edgeless blade, wondering how much worth he'd truly be able to get from it without a decent soul to work off. If he couldn't rely on the weapon's soul, he'd just have to rely on past experience, as little of it as he had.

Then again, a few hours experience killing beasts was probably more than that aggravatingly calm prettyboy had. "Alright then, it's a duel. Ready when you are, Airashi." He finally answered, gripping the rapier properly and bringing it to his side.

"Excellent!" Kaoru mirrored the motion, putting a hand on his hip and striding out onto the stage, waving into the crowd. "Coach-saaan~! I'm going to do some practice up on here on the stage, is that alright?" A man with eyes hidden under the brim of his cap shot Kaoru a thumbs up in the midst of a conversation he was having with someone else, not paying him much mind. "Thank you~! C'mon Astaire-kun, get a move on!"

Astaire took a tentative step out into the brightly-lit open space, shielding his eyes against the spotlights that cast his shadow onto the curtain behind him. Kaoru stopped just short of him, raising the tip of his rapier to him, hand back to his hip. "Ready?" He stood with the sword in his left hand, the left side of his body held more towards Astaire.

His stance looked practiced. Poised. With the lack of a soul in his weapon, Astaire could do little but attempt to emulate it himself, putting his left side behind his right.

"Alright… En garde!"

"Pardo- Ow!" Astaire flinched as Kaoru lunged forward, jabbing him in the side. It wasn't as potent a sting as would have come from a bladed rapier, but he'd felt it regardless.

Kaoru took a step back, eyebrow raised. "Eh? Don't you know what 'En Garde' means, Astaire-kun? I thought you said you'd fought with a rapier before." He finished on a smug smile, shot at the giggling trio off to the side of the stage.

"And indeed I have. Just not under such…" Criminally infuriating. "...controlled circumstances." Astaire settled for. The pain quickly dulled as he kept an eye on Kaoru's professional posture, running his eyes up and down him. It was during such an analysis that Astaire got an idea. Internally, he grinned. Oh, how devilish an idea it was. "Say, Airashi? Mind if I see that sword of yours for a moment?"

Kaoru looked at his sword, shrugged, and handed it to Astaire without another word.

_Got him._

The knight made a big show of weighing both swords in each hand, waggling the ends and turning them about in his grip. Of course, a show was all it was. "Sorry about that, thought there was something rather wrong with my sword. Here you go." He tossed the sword back to Kaoru, who swiped it deftly out of the air.

"What, you think I'm cheating, Astaire-kun?" He tossed the sword into his other hand, resuming his original stance.

With a surprisingly practiced, well-formed posture, Astaire took the right-handed equivalent, raising the rapier's tip to his opponent. "Nothing like that, just making sure we're on even footing, is all." He smirked with glee, unable to lock it inside any longer.

Kaoru's soul from within his sword wasn't much, but it was a damn sight better than nothing.

Both fighters stood at length once more. "All set? We'll go on 'Allez' this time, shall we?" Astaire nodded firmly. "En garde… _allez!"_

Their swords touched as Kaoru went on the offensive, stepping towards Astaire and forcing him back in turn. Though his trademark smile stayed firm, the boy's mind raced. The news had shown it, this tall, oafish brute carting about a sword as tall as him. He was taller. His arms and legs were longer. He looked heavier at a glance. All in all a picture of lumbering heavy-footedness.

_So how the Hell was he suddenly as light on his feet?_

Astaire returned a smile. This wasn't combat as he knew it, the blade told him as much. It was poking a hole in his defence and ending it with a single strike. The sound of the blades clashing echoing throughout the stage as he parried Kaoru's offence and slipped into his own. He wasn't so proficient as to jab him right away, but he could fend him off just the best.

One was a heavy-handed mongrel. The other was an overly caked-up prettyboy.

Neither had anticipated that a clash between the two would be so _tantalisingly exciting._

"Now that's more like it!" Kaoru said, sidestepping Astaire's latest attempt and lunging after him. "Still, you're lacking a little something." He goaded, sensing the opportunity as soon as it presented itself. "Something right _there_!" His blade flew true, thwarting Astaire's defence and striking him in the thigh. "Hit!"

Both of them retreated, Astaire rubbing his leg and grunting under his breath. He could fence, but he could fence only as well as Kaoru could, at least with his current sword. However, that meant that he had the same hole in his defence, and Astaire had just the toolset to abuse it. Hence why his smile was quick to return in spite of Kaoru's harlots screaming at him.

The two resumed their positions, and at _allez,_ they were off again.

"You're actually quite good at this!" Kaoru began, pushing Astaire back towards Kanami and the others. "You know, perhaps I could talk with the directors on set and see about getting you in as an extra! We could use someone with your talents!" He said between strikes.

Astaire's (although technically Kaoru's,) footwork was smooth and deft, keeping him quite literally on his toes as he simultaneously backed towards the girls and flicked away strike after strike. "I'll have to disappoint you, I'm afraid. My current job suits me down to the ground!" He flourished his wrist, knocking Kaoru off balance and forcing him to lock blades with him.

"You know, Kida-chan…" Kaoru knocked them apart, thrusting where Astaire had been before he'd dodged. He recoiled in a flash and fended off the riposte that launched his way. "...She's really quite fond of your sort. Tall, pale, aggressive and wild. I'm sure she'd jump at the thought of having you there!"

Locking blades again, Kaoru allowed his opponent a glance in Kida-chan's direction. She glanced sideways and tried to hide her face, only for Haru and Miyano to pry her hands away, all three giggling like schoolgirls, more at each other than anything. Kanami stood separate from them, biting her lower lip and playing with her hair.

No doubt anticipating the result of the latest bout. Never willing to disappoint, Astaire stepped backwards and struck at Kaoru proper. "Sorry, but I'll have to disappoint her too. My previous statement still stands!" He boasted, surging forward.

"Hit." Astaire froze as the end of Kaoru's blade found its way to his stomach. He bit his tongue to stem the tide of oaths that lapped at the back of his lips. "What a shame. I shouldn't have expected any less of you, though." Kaoru ran a hand across his brow to clear the sweat he'd worked up. "Maybe I'll ask Rise-chan to play a part, that'd get you along in no time." He muttered just loud enough for Astaire to hear.

And hear it he did. The knight narrowed his eyes, the adrenaline-fueled grin sinking quickly. "I'm sure Ms. Kujikawa has more prestigious things to do with her time, as do I." He bit back, his grip tightening on the rapier's hilt.

"Oh, I don't doubt it. Chasing after her tail must be tiring work, after all." Kaoru's chorus gave a simultaneous 'Ooooh~' at his comment. He raised his sword again, calm as ever. "Ready when you are, Astaire-kun."

The mood shifted as Astaire stepped into position. Kanami could tell just by looking at the two of them. Astaire didn't hide his emotions very well, he looked about as angry as he was.

Kaoru, though? Kaoru was different.

Every idol had one. Rise, Kaoru, even Kanami herself. The easy, false smile. Little more than a malleable mask to keep others from reading them properly. A well-practiced, tight-lipped facade of a smile. It took an idol's eye to even make a guess at what was going on underneath.

Kanami didn't even need to guess. Kaoru's eyes brimmed with an aggressive glint, like that of a snake hiding in the grass before striking at its prey. Like the strike of a match as it loomed over a trail of gasoline.

The time for well-meaning banter was over.

Allez.

"I take it you're not familiar with 'The Princess Bride,' are you?" Kaoru asked between aggressive, close-ranged swipes. Astaire didn't answer, focused on parrying as he was. "It's one of my favourite movies. In particular…" He advanced quicker than Astaire had anticipated, his blade naught but a blur. "...the scene atop the Black Cliffs of Despair. There's a fight very much like this one."

"Cease your jibbering and focus on the fight in front of you." Astaire grunted as he forced Kaoru back, side stepping and giving himself more room to retreat. The prettyboy was more aggressive now, viciously so. It was all he could do to keep up with his strikes, leaving him little time to send in his own.

"Care to take a guess at what happens mid-way through the fight?"

"Not particularly, no." Astaire grunted back, side-stepping again.

In an instant, Kaoru's grin sharpened. "Then let me demonstrate for you, shall I?" He hissed darkly. Before Astaire could even register it, Kaoru's sword was suddenly in his right hand, his stance shifting to accommodate it. "Hit." And before he could question the action, Astaire felt the sign of his defeat.

Yet Kaoru kept going, his blade still raised.

"What's the matter?" He lunged, narrowly missing Astaire's chest. "Are you really struggling this much with just a change of my hands? Hit." He pierced Astaire's guard again, striking him in the shoulder. Yet still he kept going. "You never know, maybe I should be the one changing jobs!" He gave a wild flourish, whipping Astaire's sword away and needlessly twirling his own around in front of him. "I'd do a wonderful job keeping my eye on Rise-chan."

Astaire knew he could've been hit well over five times in the space he'd left him to recover. He knew Kaoru had to have known it too. The belligerent little sod was taunting him. Showing off. Riling him up. He knew it was what he wanted.

But damn it all if it wasn't working. Words failed him as he clashed with Kaoru again, growling and snorting and fuming all the while. No way was this arrogant little- "Hit hit hit."

The fight stopped dead. The hits had come so quickly they'd almost felt like one. But there was no denying that three there were. Astaire froze on the spot, clutching his stomach as the wind escaped his lungs. Kaoru kneeled down, looking him in the eye as he tried catching his breath. "I'll be back with Inoue-san in a minute, Astaire-kun. I'm not sure how many papers you need to properly resign as a bodyguard." He said slowly, smugly and deliberately. Astaire looked up to face him and-

"Hit."

Right in the bruise under his eye. The extra rapier clattered to the floor as Astaire clutched at the fresh surge of pain piercing his face, his teeth bared as he held back a shout. It wasn't the worst he'd experienced. It wasn't a death knell. But it was still sore as hell.

He looked up slowly, seeing Kaoru turning and making for his open-armed band of cheering floozies. At the same time, Kanami was stepping off to rush over and help him. Looking at him saunter away with barely a scratch ate at Astaire from the inside out. He couldn't leave it like this. Couldn't let him just walk away, all smug smiles and inflammatory remarks.

There was likely a better solution he could have come to. A calmer, more rational response. One with thoughts in regard to the potential consequences his actions might have.

"Hold it right there, Airashi."

Astaire was beyond caring about that.

Kaoru turned on the spot, as smug as he'd been with the sword in his hand. He tilted his head quizzically.

"I'm afraid I've rather been cheating you." Astaire continued, rising to his full height and fending off the pain. "Denying you a proper fight, as it were."

His voice was calm. Level. _Deliciously enraged._ How could Kaoru resist? He began sauntering over to Astaire, sword newly in hand. "What? Are you going to tell me you're actually left-handed now?" He said through his false smile. "I don't think that'll help you much."

"Oh no, it's not that. I'm just not using the proper equipment, that's all."

Within a flash, something gleaming, elegant and razor-sharp escaped from within Astaire's coat. The space of an eyeblink would have denied it. Both Kanami and Kaoru blinked as they processed what had actually happened.

In Astaire's hand was a beautifully crafted rapier, guard wrought from gold and the blade sharper than a serpent's tooth. So startling and flowing was the design that it made the practice rapiers look like stuffs made only for peasants. Then again, in front of the rapier of Undead Prince Ricard, few could equal.

Eyes sharp, Astaire pointed the lethal end of the blade at Kaoru. "Fight me again. All or nothing."

Even on the end of a sword pulled from nowhere, Kaoru laughed dismissively. "Come now, Astaire-kun. That's a live blade you're playing with there. A little dangerous, don't you think?"

"Only to those who lack the skill to fend it off properly."

There was a beat where all fell silent. Not even Kaoru's giggling brood made a peep. Finally, the boy took a few steps back and turned, blade raised. He didn't say a word, nor did he even attempt to fake a smile.

"Allez."

* * *

Rise tapped her foot on the floor, matching the rhythm her pen set on her notebook. Something that rhymed with 'dreamy grey hair' which wasn't 'wish I were there.' Hmmm.

She took to biting the end of her pencil. It didn't only need to rhyme, it'd need to either fit in with the rest of the song, or she'd have to say 'screw it' and re-write everything that came after. As if writing songs about one's friends wasn't hard enough.

A sigh, the most recent of many, left Rise as she leaned back in her chair, hands on her face. "Uuugh. Maybe I should start the whole thing over." She said to herself, being the only other one in the dressing room. "The tone is all wrong. It's not…" She didn't want to say 'distant enough.' She and Senpai weren't distant, not at all. He was as close friends with her as he was everybody else.

Considering it in that light, perhaps the problem wasn't him, then, but her. Her eyes ran over the lyrics another time. She could hear the accompaniment that'd bring them to life, see the stage lit up as she sung it and hear herself singing it into the mic. So what was wrong with it? How could she have worked on it for so long only to trip up now?

...Actually, how long had it been? Rise counted back the innumerable times she'd brought out the book in private, chewed the end of her pencil and fought the hordes of eraser rubbing that always seemed to get caught in the pages. It'd been months. She didn't remember how many, but she could remember clearly the act of signing Yu's name at the top, hearts lining the margins.

The hearts, of course, fell victim to the eraser a good few months later.

Rise placed her arms behind her head and gazed at the far wall, eyes distant. The hearts were gone, sure, but the song she'd written under their influence still remained.

Then it hit her. _That_ was the problem. Not any one piece of the song, but the whole thing.

Commitment coalescing in her chest, Rise reached forward and abruptly ripped the page entirely, rolling it up and tossing it across the room. The mindset, not the song, was the issue. What she needed was a new song. A new mindset. Start fresh!

She nodded to herself as she flipped to the next blank page. Senpai would just have to be content with being placed behind Teddie's song, that was all. She drew her hand back like a conductor ready to begin a symphony, put pencil to paper and…!

Stopped. Nothing. The canal of creativity found itself still and unperturbed.

Back to leaning in the chair, she guessed.

She stared over at the rolled-up lyrics, the slightest hint of sorrow stuck in her eyes. She'd ran over it so many times. More times that she cared to admit, at least now. The idea was concrete in her mind, no matter how badly destroyed the lyrics were.

After a minute or two of playing with her hair, Rise's eyes lit up. An idea! Instead of working on Senpai's song with the old one still held in her mind, why not write one about somebody completely different? Yeah! Come back to Senpai's completely refreshed and work on it then! She was practically kicking herself for not thinking of it sooner.

"I'll do one for Nanako-chan…" She scribbled her name on the next free page, "...Dojima-san…" She added his on the next. That'd be interesting to come up with. Maybe something jazzy because he was so hardboiled? "Ooh, I could do one about Kanami, too! We could make it a duet!" Her mind was now racing with new ideas and plans, jotting notes under names excitedly.

She got as far as 'As-' before she stopped mid-frenzy. She drew her hand back, humming thoughtfully to herself.

It wasn't that she didn't like him, certainly not, but the guy had barely been around a week. What would she even write about? What would the backing track sound like? Everyone else seemed pretty easy to nail down. Yukiko-senpai pretty much oozed 'traditional japanese' vibes, that was simple. Chie-senpai's would sound like something out of a kung-fu movie, maybe with some chinese instruments and influences.

Everyone had a _sound_ , at least to Rise. The sounds she associated with Astaire weren't exactly easily transferred into music. Bleeding out after getting stabbed didn't make a good instrumental.

Rise glanced up to the corner of the room as she tapped the pencil off her lips. Why was it so easy for everyone else? Obviously she'd known them longer, but-

She clicked her fingers. That was it! History! She knew little things about everyone that weren't evident at first, but which she'd just picked up over time! Like all the times she'd caught Yosuke in the hallway with something telling pouring out of his headphones, or noticed Kanji unknowingly tapping his foot to certain songs on the radio, but not to others. Combine that with everyone's hobbies, interests and all the little details, and she was set!

Nodding again, she finished writing Astaire's name on the page. Maybe they didn't have that much history. Maybe his past was a completely mystery, even to him, but this? This was going to be it. Her motivation. Her guiding influence to help him get back his memories so she could write about him just as easily as she could everyone else. Senpai excluded, at least for now.

"Alright. With that out of the way…" Rise flicked back to Nanako's page, hand on the draw. "...Let's see how to work in Junes without mentioning it by name, shall we?" She chuckled. No sooner had she struck paper, something caught her ear. Something from outside the dressing room.

It sounded like footsteps. A _lot_ of footsteps doing a _lot_ of running down the corridor outside.

Stuffing the notebook back in her bag, Rise hustled over and opened the door, reeling back at the solid wall of people tripping over themselves to get away from… whatever it was.

The quickfire sounds of metal clashing with metal sounded out from the other end of the corridor. Rise rubbed her temples on reflex as she caught a glimpse of ultramarine on the other side of the crowd.

* * *

The ground shook, hearts beat, windows rattled, and at the centre of it all were the two swordsmen, one pursuing the other under thrusts and lunges.

Kaoru knew something had to be different. A sword couldn't change someone so profoundly on its own. Without it he'd been reasonable. With it, _he was a monster._ A monster with defence so ironclad that no sword could ever pierce it. With offence so swift that he could shishkebab his heart and never feel it missing a beat. He'd changed completely.

Ricard's Rapier was nigh unseeable as it easily fended off anything Kaoru threw at it. Such was the difference a powerful soul made. Astaire grinned as he swiped off one of Kaoru's bangs aside his face. "Hit. Almost." He grinned. Now it was _his_ turn to be smug.

It was only then that Kaoru's mask began slipping. He couldn't resist baring his teeth in frustration as he tried every trick and maneuver he knew and watched every single one fall flat. Again, a swipe at his other bang. Another tuft of fallen hair. Twice he could have ended it and didn't.

This was his five-fit flourish. The tables had turned. So satisfied was Astaire that he barely registered the set of twintails he soared past in pursuit of his quarry. "Had enough, have you? I can shave off the rest while I'm at it!" He said, laughing heartily.

Kaoru's face turned red. He muttered wordless curses between strikes as sweat poured down his face. " _Not a chance, you bloodthirsty ape!"_ And there it was. The straw that broke the camel's back.

Though he loathed to let him go, Astaire knew drawing it out for much longer would only get him in worse trouble. Better to let the poor, frothing prettyboy go.

 _After he paid him back for the bruise, of course_.

With an effortless flourish from Astaire, Kaoru let out a cry of pain as his sword was sent flying. A thin red line extended across the back of his palm, a trickle of blood quickly seeping down towards the floor. As the pain began stoking his rage like coal to a fire, he felt something disturb the air around him. And again. Again and again and again.

Astaire's arm was a blur, his sword but a silver shimmer in the air around Kaoru, quick as lightning and twice as sharp. With one final thrust, ending just short of Kaoru's nose, the fight was over. "Hit." Astaire said with a satisfied grin.

"Astaire-kun? What's going on here?"

_Uh oh._

Astaire wheeled around on the spot, suddenly feeling a puppet hung up from their strings. A feeling which didn't subside as he saw Rise standing behind him, hands on her hips. "Ah, well, about this." He began, quickly concealing his sword in his coat. "Mr. Airashi proposed that we-"

No sooner had his explanation begun, Astaire was wrenched around just as a blood-stained fist met with his nose, knocking his backwards. "How dare you strike me, you ignorant prick." Kaoru said, hair dishevelled and eyes murderous. "Do you realise how important this image is?! How much is riding on _my_ good looks?!"

If yesterday had taught Rise anything, it was that letting Astaire recover from that punch would be a really, _really_ bad idea. She placed herself between the two boys just as the taller one surged forward, stopping at the sight of her. "That's enough from both of you! Don't make it any worse than it is!"

He could have easily bowled her over. He had a whole head's height on her. Broader than her, too. It'd have been like a picket fence trying to stop a steam train. Even still, the knight took a deep breath and not one step further. It was her, after all. Something with a bit more of a hold on him than any cloud of rage.

Though one fencer was calm, the other was distinctly less so. "Be glad you only scratched my hand. Any more than that and I'd have grounds to ruin your career. You and hers both." He motioned his head to Rise as he cupped his hand.

" _Leave her out of it!"_ Astaire's first enraged step forward was also his last. Rise turned on the spot and held him back, arms to his chest as she looked up at him gravely, shaking her head. _'Let him go.'_ the look said. After a few seconds of eye contact, he felt the tension leave her. "You too should be glad. It seems Ms. Kujikawa's kindness extends even to scum like you."

The silence was as thick as fog. Every other sound seemed to muffle and fade out as the former fencers locked eyes. Kaoru was the first to break, no doubt heading off to seek medical attention for his hand. Rise didn't look Astaire in the eye as she stormed off behind him after.

A smarter man likely wouldn't have followed, so Astaire took after her readily.

* * *

The rest of the day at the studio was spent in silence. Kanami didn't bother Astaire as he walked out with Rise, and he took particular notice that the trio of girls from earlier gave him a wide berth any time he was nearby. Daring to glance down at her, he found her eyes becoming very well acquainted with the ground as she hung her head low.

He gulped. She couldn't stay silent forever, of course. There would come a moment where she'd snap, and then he'd really be in for it. The heavy feeling which weighed on him didn't leave even as they walked out to the car leaving them back at the hotel.

And got dropped off.

And walked up to the room.

And as he held open the door to said room.

But the moment that door shut? "Augh! I just hate him _so much_!" Rise exploded, grabbed her pillow from the freshly-made bed and launching it at the wall. "Who the hell does he think he is?! Strutting about acting like he's the only person worth anything in the whole studio! He… He…!" The rest devolved into a frustrated growl as she grabbed the pillow again and launched it somewhere else.

It took Astaire a moment or two to realise she'd said 'I hate him' as opposed to 'I hate you.' "Wait a minute. You don't like Airashi?"

" _WHO COULD?!"_ She turned around, twintails practically on the verge of catching fire. "Going about saying he'll ruin people's careers and all that other stuff! He drives me up the wall!" She fumed, driving the pillow up the wall.

Thinking back on it, perhaps Rise hadn't been holding him back as much as she'd been holding _both_ of them back. "He told me he was a fan of yours when we first spoke. I assumed you'd be on some kind of good terms."

It seemed every time he said something, Rise turned back to him twice as angry as she had been. "He's a little creep! Feels like wherever I go he's slinking around somewhere nearby!" She huddled her arms together, apparently having grown a conscience about torturing her poor, innocent pillow.

"So, you…" Careful, now. Don't sound too happy about it. "...don't mind that I was chasing him down mid-fence?"

As her breaths became more controlled Rise blinked, as though only just then remember it'd happened. "Hey, what was with that, actually?" Her look of curiosity sharpened to a glare. "Don't tell me he caught you and Kanami doing something-"

" _Certainly not!"_ Astaire insisted forcefully, swiping at the air.

From there, he recounted the events leading up to, during and after his first bout against Kaoru. Around halfway in, he began to regret going into as much detail, because Rise's face was briskly turning a more furious shade of red with every word. All the same, he'd dug the hole so deep he couldn't possibly jump out now. Only thing left to do was keep digging.

"...and then I whipped out Ricard's Rapier and goaded him on, and he accepted. That was when I ended up chasing him down the hallway."

He almost uttered a chuckle, admittedly have _loved_ putting Kaoru in his place, but a tossed pillow to the face cut him off. It wasn't that Rise had tossed it at him on purpose, he'd just been the closest thing to hit. He sat slightly stunned as Rise stormed around the room once again, shouting at the top of her lungs about 'What does he know about me' this and 'Thinks he's so freaking smart' that.

Astaire just sat by and let her tire herself out. Clearly anything he said was just going to set her off more.

Finally, after no surface had been spared her pillowy wrath, Rise again began catching her breath, hands on her hips. Panting made it hard to speak, but eventually a smile began working its way to her lips. "Bet you really threw him for a loop once you got serious, huh? I've never seen him get so worked up before."

"You're one to talk." Astaire blinked, still a little shell-shocked. "I've never seen _you_ get so worked up before."

Rise scratched the back of her head, hoping her rosy-facedness looked more 'exertion' than 'embarrassment.' "Yeah, it's… I'll admit, it's not a side of myself I show a lot of people. Idols are all about image, after all." She said. Sensing the wary look on his face wasn't going to quickly subside on its own, she leaned over and lightly punched Astaire in the arm. "See? This is why I don't mind having you around. It's nice to have someone around to bounce these things off of."

Astaire looked between her and the pillow at his feet.

"Not the pillows, you dork! Just stuff like this. Stuff I can't let anyone outside this room see or hear, at least outside of Inaba." Her expression turned unpleasant as she tutted and glanced away. "Someone like Kaoru wouldn't do that. Wouldn't get it. Listening to someone else's problems and rants and stuff."

Not that he'd expected much more of him, but Astaire raised an eyebrow anyway. "What an odd fellow. I thought friends told each other stuff like that." He quickly bristled under Rise's gaze, folding his arms over. "P-Perhaps he's simply not used to having friends. I can't imagine that noisy trio of his being very good company."

Last addition notwithstanding, it seemed he really had taken her words from the previous night to heart! To the letter, too!

Rise shook her head as she went back on topic. "Too used to getting his own way, more like. He always pesters Kanami and me since we're practically the only two girls that don't throw ourselves at him." She wiped her brow before trying to fix up her hair, having knocked it all out of sorts mid-rampage. "I bet he's just being a big baby because I'd rather hang out with you than him."

Astaire could've taken some solace in the fact, had Rise not just spent the last 10 minutes bellowing to the heavens just how much she hated him. Not that he could blame her, given it was taking every stalwart bone in his body to resist doing the same.

He must've been making a sour face, because suddenly Rise had placed her own not far from it. "Don't worry, ignore what he said, we'll both be fine. Maybe after getting hoisted by his shorts, he'll actually take the hint and leave me alone!" She giggled.

Damnit all, who could hear that giggle and stay mad? Though he tried to fight it off, Astaire couldn't help curling the sides of his mouth up in the end. "One can only hope. Should he cease bothering me and come pestering you instead, let me know and I'll have make sure the scars on both his hands match." He ran a finger over the back of both palms for effect, beginning to get drawn in to Rise's fit of laughter.

"Oh, I'll give him worse than that! Don't forget whose Granddaughter you're talking to here!" Rise said, pounding her fist into her other hand. "Between the two of us, he's got no chance! He'll never see it coming!"

"Right! We're a team, after all!" Astaire said, pounding a fist to his chest.

Rise balled her fists excitedly, stars in her eyes. "And as a team, nothing can get the better of us!"

" _Hi, Rise-chan!"_ Teddie said as his head rocketed out of the TV without warning, drawing a scream from the girl herself.

" _GODS ABOVE!"_ Astaire hollered along, reflexively launching his foot at the source of the noise and forcefully kicking Teddie back inside the TV with a muffled cry of protest, followed by a pregnant silence.

Astaire looked at Rise.

Rise looked at Astaire.

She sucked a breath through her teeth and looked away with a worried smile on her face, hands behind her back. "So… here's the thing. Y'know the way I was gonna tell you about us meeting everyone and then got distracted when I stepped on your face this morning…?"

Astaire groaned. So much for nothing getting the better of them.

* * *

The regular hustle and bustle of Junes' food court filled the air, accompanied by the crisp, breathable freshness that only an encroaching Summer could provide. Perfect weather for say, a picnic, or a walk by the Samegawa. Or sitting grumpily reading a newspaper in the shade outside one's workplace on one's day off.

"For the last time Yosuke, would you put the stupid paper down and talk to us?" Chie said as she kicked his seat for the third time this session. "You look much angrier for much longer and you're going to put Kanji-kun out of business."

"Hey! What kinda business do you think I'm in, huh?" Kanji said, no doubt gesturing and looking like a grump. It was hard to tell on the other end of the headlines.

Out of the corner of his eye, Yosuke caught Yukiko trying to poke her nose around the side of the paper. "What exactly are you reading about that's so interesting, anyway? It must be exciting if it's kept you held this long."

"What? Yosuke _reading?_ " Oh, crap. Now Teddie was here too. "There has to be some mistake! I thought they kept the swimsuit pages out of-"

"I'm not looking at the swimsuit section, damnit!" Yosuke finally snapped, tossing the paper out in front of him, tapping the article that had caught his eye. "Look, look here! Read exactly what that says!"

Chie and Yukiko shared puzzled glances before the latter shifted over to get a better read. She cleared her throat and began, "Rumours surrounding a violent outbreak at the Takura Productions Studio Lot have run rampant on online forums and image boards alike, as pictures of a pair of heavily injured photographers emerged over the course of yesterday. Some are speculating that it was the result of an unfortunate accident, whereas other claims range from sinister Yakuza connection within the industry to…" Yukiko barely contained a snort, raising a hand to her mouth as she tried getting out the next line. "...s-secret military connections... using idols as undercover secret agents!"

And away she went. Yukiko's laughter practically drowned out the noise created by the rest of the food court combined as she clutched at her aching sides. "Oh great, thanks Yosuke." Chie said flatly.

"Weren't you listening to anything this just said?!" Yosuke snapped, tapping his finger on the article. "Don't you know what Takura Productions is?!" Everyone shook their heads in unison. God damnit. "It's Rise's production company! The one she went back to working for at the start of spring!"

Chie almost leapt out of her seat as she rocketed forward to the table. "No way! Are you serious?!"

"Dead. I'd bet you ten thousand yen that he's the one behind it." He said with a distasteful emphasis on he. What sounded like an exasperated sigh from Kanji wrestled his attention towards him. "What? Don't tell me you're not thinking the same thing!"

"I ain't thinking the same thing." Kanji said bluntly, kicking his chair onto its back legs. "Seriously Yosuke-senpai, you might even be right about Astaire for all we know, but you're being such an asshole about it, you're making me wanna side with him anyway."

"Not to mention there's no real evidence that he was the one behind it." Yukiko added, eyes scanning quickly over the rest of the article after she finally quelled her laughter. "From the looks of things, they don't even have a solid culprit yet. For all we know-" She snorted, trying to will her lips not to curl up again. "-maybe Rise-chan really is a secret agent!" Her giggles sounded dangerously close to a full scale laugh, even as she buried her mouth in her hands.

Notably, in Yosuke's mind at least, Chie was the only one looking halfway concerned, resting her chin on interlocked fingers. "I mean… Rise-chan did have those two days off not long ago. Yesterday would've been her first day back. So it's not like he wasn't there…" She said slowly, choosing her words carefully. "I dunno, it's possible, I guess."

Finally, someone on his side. "Thank you! At least someone gets it!" Yosuke said, gesturing an arm towards Chie. "If this is all just a coincidence and he didn't do it, I'm gonna eat my headphones."

"It would be pretty in-character for Stairry-kun!" Teddie joined in, ignoring the wave of puzzled looks he garnered from everyone else. "Yesterday when he and Rise-chan came here, he knocked me flat down one of the aisles! And all I wanted was to come say hello…" He moaned overdramatically.

"Didja sneak up behind him, by any chance?" Kanji asked.

Teddie blinked. "Yeah, why?"

"That'd explain it. Can't blame him." He said, newly leaning back in his chair.

Yosuke shook his head momentarily. "Wait wait wait. When were he and Rise here yesterday?" One brief explanation from Teddie later, an epiphany seemed to hit Yosuke from the blue. He scoured through the paper anew, finally landing on another article a bit further in. "Huh. Well isn't that interesting. Says here there was a disturbance at a school in Inaba yesterday." He met eyes with everyone else. "Nanako-chan's school, to be precise."

If anyone hadn't been taking him seriously enough before, that changed in the blink of an eye. As the expected tirade of questions resounded in his ears, Yosuke continued. "Says here the playground got all messed up by some unknown force, including one massive crater at the center of it all. Kids say they don't know what happened." The paper gave way under the pressure of Yosuke's tightening fists on either page. "...Anyone wanna try convince me this is a coincidence too?"

The sound of a thick pair of shoes approaching the group came from behind him. "I might try." The unmistakably cool and collected voice of Naoto Shirogane jutted in. "...As soon as you let me know what you're talking about, that is." She admitted, glancing to the side.

A quick retread of the past five minutes and Naoto was ready to go, sitting across from Kanji and resting her hands on the table. "Do you have any proof?" She began immediately, shooting Yosuke a serious look.

"Proof? Naoto, it's so obvious that he-"

"-is connected to these events only through sheer happenstance and conclusions you yourself have drawn. Beyond that, is there any physical, verifiable proof that Astaire-san was indeed the cause of both events?"

Yosuke chewed the inside of his cheek frustratedly before closing his eyes in defeat. "Damnit… I guess there isn't. Not yet, anyway." Damnit. Damnit damnit damnit. It was so clear it was him. Who else could it have been? There was no way he could have been in both places and not had a hand in whatever went down. It was totally impossible.

But it was also impossible to prove, more to the point. Without any dirt on Astaire, he couldn't convince everyone else otherwise. "You know what? Fine." Yosuke said, raising his arms. "Maybe you're right. Maybe you're right, and Rise and Yu are right, and everyone freaking else is right too. Maybe I'm the one that's wrong here." Chie went to reach out for one of his arms, but recoiled as he brought them back down to the table. "You know what? Sure. I'll roll with it. Even though he's done nothing but be a nuisance to Rise and cause trouble, I'll bite. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt."

"Huh. That's pretty big of you, Yo-"

"However." Kanji stopped as Yosuke held out a finger. "If I find out he is the cause of all this, and he is the one that's causing trouble, you've all gotta admit that I might be onto something. No more making excuses or whatever."

The gang exchanged wordless glances between one another as Yosuke clenched his fists in anticipation of a reply. "Fine." Chie broke first. "But I'm not saying you're right!"

"We'll need to appraise Astaire-san's side of the story before drawing any lines in the sand, but I too am in agreement." Naoto added shortly after. A similar wave of agreements and answers was the follow, loosening Yosuke's grip on the paper. Took them all long enough.

The sound of yet another pair of familiar shoes strode up from Junes' main building in the middle of the discussion. "Good to see you're all in such high spirits." Yu said with a smile. "Hope that means you're all good to go for today." It was only when he scanned his eyes over everyone amongst the varied greetings that he noticed a distinct lack of twintails amongst them. "Hm? Rise's not here?" He looked down at his watch. "They're a little late, aren't they? Think everything's alright?"

Teddie let out a laugh as he waved a paw. "Of course it'll be alright, Sensei! The monsters in Stairry-kun's part of the world don't seem to come back around after you beat them the first time, it's a breeze!"

"Really? That doesn't sound right…" Yu said as he tapped his chin. "Wherever we're walking into, it sounds like the rules aren't quite what they were before. Everyone be on your toes for anything out of the ordinary." He looked up from his thoughts, directing his focus back to Teddie. "Ted, you met Rise and Astaire-san the first time they entered the TV, right? Think you could guide us over there? If they haven't left yet, we'll probably meet them on the way anyway."

Going inside the TV without their resident navigator present felt and sounded odd. Out of place. Under any other circumstances, nobody would have been daft enough to even entertain the idea. However, Teddie had said that the shadows behaved differently over in Astaire's area. Perhaps going in without someone to analyse the shadows wouldn't be so bad if they were all dead in the first place.

Teddie certainly seemed to think so, at any rate. He hopped out from under the table and quickly made a beeline for the electronics department. "Sure thing, Sensei! Everyone else try and keep up, it's a heck of a walk!" He enthused, bouncing away as everyone quickly picked themselves up and took after him.

* * *

"Teddie!" was Rise's first word as she and Astaire landed in the Statue Grove. "We're really sorry, but you've got to learn to stop sneaking up on…" She trailed off as she raised her head, coming face to face not only with Teddie, but the rest of the team as well. "Oh. Hey, everyone! I thought we were all meeting up at Junes?" She said, trying to ignore some of the darker looks her friends were firing their way.

Astaire picked himself up after a harsh landing, slipping his glasses on before the sickness could take hold. After noting that the act seemed much more difficult with the glasses on, he too met the faces of their adventuring companions.

If he'd had a Persona and was able, he'd have turned right back around and hopped back in the TV all over again.

Yosuke had his arms folded, and looked about as pleased to see him as he always was. Yu's eyes were just about visible under his hair, so low was his head hung. Naoto peeked out grimly from under her cap, intermittently looking around at the statues which-

Oh, _Gods Above._ The statues.

"Hey, this one's not too bad. Looks just like me!" Kanji, one of the only people not glaring daggers at them both, remarked at he and Astaire's effigy, looking up like a scholar in a museum. They'd really nailed his hair, somehow. Even got all the folds in his clothes perfect.

Despite his best efforts, Kanji alone wasn't enough to quell the unmistakably tense atmosphere that hung over everyone. "Before we ask anything else…" Yu began slowly. "...I sent you two to check up on Nanako at school. Tell me what happened there."

It was only when he brought it up that Rise paled a shade. Inaba was sleepy and quiet enough as it was, there was no way anything like a kid's school getting roughed up _wouldn't_ make the news. Preferring not to rethink over the details, because God only knew she'd done it enough already, she pointed at the statue of Astaire getting impaled. "That happened. Someone tried attacking us and Astaire-kun fought off."

Yu followed her finger, gazing up at the gratuitous detail captured in stone about him. "I see. Did anyone get hurt? Besides Astaire-san, that is." He quickly added as he saw Rise rilling up for a yelling match. She stopped and shook her head. "So Nanako was alright? And the rest of the kids too?" She nodded. Yu let out a deep sigh as he hunched over. "Right, good. That's good to hear."

"Like hell is it good to hear!" Yosuke kicked off, looking like he'd been itching to go ever since Astaire had landed in front of him. "What attacked you? Why? And furthermore…" He reeled around, pointing an accusatory finger at the statue of Astaire's bout against the reporters. "...you mind explaining _that_ while you're at it, too?! Or maybe why any of these things are here to begin with?!"

Astaire glanced between the statue and him incredulously. "It's me doing my job. I thought Ms. Kujikawa was in danger and-"

"Nearly beat two guys to death?!" Yosuke interjected, stepping forward. "So much for having peaceful intentions, huh?"

He could take it from Rise. Lord knows if it'd make her feel better he'd have let Rise yell at him for a week straight. But Astaire wasn't feeling quite as tactful when it came to Yosuke. "Now see here, you-!"

"Don't start!" In a second Rise was between the two of them, arms outstretched. "Yosuke-senpai, Astaire-kun and I talked about this already, it's old news! Can't we please just let it go before this gets any worse?"

Goddamnit, _no he couldn't._ He'd been right to suspect him the entire time, the guy was a veritable trouble magnet. Naoto had wanted evidence and here it was, quite literally set in stone.

That aside, the whole place seemed to pop another vein in Yosuke's head, no matter where he looked. Statues of he and Rise all over the place, with only two exceptions. This world had to represent what was going on inside his head, and to Yosuke, it was all too clear what he had on his mind.

"C'mon Yosuke, now's not the time. We need to see what we're up against here. Save it for later, alright?" Yu said as he placed a hand on his shoulder. Of course he'd take his side after he's supposedly saved Nanako-chan. But between him and Rise, Yosuke knew better than to bet against the odds.

He shook Yu off his shoulder. "...Fine." He said not at all convincingly, walking over to the massive gates at the end of the grove.

"Good to know somebody's keeping things cheery." Yu sarcastically rolled his eyes. "Yosuke's got a point though, even if he's got kind of a rough way of saying it. I'd like an explanation too. We all would, I think." He said, turning to Astaire and Rise anew.

Seeing as Naoto had turned away and everyone had more or less taken up positions by sitting on some of the empty platforms, Astaire felt a little more comfortable moving for once. "I'll tell everyone on the way, as much as I'm able. That way I won't have to recount it more than once." He looked down at Rise, who nodded at him affirmatively. Good choice.

Yu slung his sword up over his shoulder. "Great, thanks." He then took off towards the large white set of gates at the end of the grove, with everyone immediately hopping to their feet at his approach. "Alright everyone! We don't know what's going to be in here, but if last year was anything to go off, this dungeon may be the hardest we've come up against yet. I'll need all of you to stay sharp and focused." He turned to Astaire and Rise, who were following up shortly behind him. "That goes double for you, Astaire-san. Chances are this'll be something that only those with Personas can handle."

"Here's hoping it's not, then! I would relish the chance to fight alongside you lot again!" Astaire said with a grin.

Yu nodded, walking up to the white gate and giving it a healthy push. Without so much as a rusty squeak, it opened up invitingly, leading the group further into the forest beyond it. It looked a lot denser and darker than the rest, and seemed to give off a more foreboding air as well. Perfect for getting jumped by shadows.

"Alright, we'll go with the usual. Naoto, Kanji and Yukiko will be on the front line with me, everyone else hold back unless things go south. Now let's move!"

* * *

"...and on my way further in, I found myself accosted by Kirk, the Knight of Thorns! I can only assume it was mere coincidence, I know now why he'd have been there otherwise." Astaire finished, talking to no one person in partcular in an attempt to fill in the group as a whole. "Any outside invaders to the world must occupy the same area in a parallel plane of existence. That's why that Lautrec lookalike is bugging me so."

Given that Naoto was on the frontlines and thus couldn't devote much time to it, Yukiko had offered to take her notes for her. "Hmmm… I guess we wouldn't really know if there were worlds exactly like ours with different people in them like yours."

"Sounds like the sort of thing that only happens when your world is as messed up as Lordran is." Rise chimed in, leaving Kouzeon dormant after noticing a massive zero total enemies around them. "So there couldn't have been someone else at the same school at the same time, right? It just doesn't add up."

"Either way." Yosuke said, idly spinning his daggers between his fingers. "We know they can appear in our world now. That's one more thing to keep an eye on."

As much as he wanted to say something, Astaire recoiled at the sight of Yosuke's daggers. Malakh, he'd heard them called. Dangerous looking dual-bladed weapons fashioned to look like angel wings. Even just looking at them, Astaire could sense the power within them.

"Oh shadows~! Where are you~?" Teddie said as he bounced along, cupping his paws around his mouth. "Huh. That's really weird. There were more shadows back the way we came than there are here now!"

This would be the third time, and Rise swore she knew the answer before she'd already done it, but she summoned Kouzeon up and scanned the surrounding area. "No hits. No shadows whatsoever." She sighed. "Senpai, are you sure we're heading the right way? We might be lost or something!"

Even though there was very little going on, Yu kept his guard up. "We're heading _some_ way, anyway. This forest has to end some time, doesn't it?"

"In the real world, perhaps. Somehow I don't see it being the case right now." Chie commented, kicking a loose branch on the ground as they went. "Why doesn't one of us try climbing a tree and see what's up? Always works in movies."

Yosuke turned on a heel and began walking backwards. "Take it you're volunteering since you brought it up?"

"What, you think I won't?!"

"I never said that. Just asked if you were volunteering." Yosuke grinned as Chie immediately made for the nearest tree, the sound of smaller branches breaking and leaves rustling being left in her wake. "Well? Anything exciting up there? Any shadows even?" Yosuke called after her as the sounds of her traversal grew dimmer.

No answer. For a moment, Yosuke considered running up the tree after her to see what was wrong. That was before Chie came tumbling out from the canopy, tumbling into him and knocking them both flat to the ground. "Hey, thanks for the save, Yosuke!" She got up and offered him a hand, pulling him to his feet as he dusted himself off, mumbling something about 'Woulda been nice if you'd warned me' and whatnot. "We're not far from something now! Everyone follow me!" She kicked off in a flash, shooting past Yu and further into the forest.

Yosuke was hot on her tail. "Chie! If you don't stop running off on your own like that I'm gonna break your legs!" He called after her, weaving nimbly in between the trees in her wake.

Yu massaged the bridge of his nose. "Two people running off on their own isn't that much better, y'know." He said as he shook his head, contemplating buying Chie a leash and typing her to somebody else to stop this from happening so damn often. "Either way, it sounded like Chie found something. We should get after them!" Yu said, beckoning everyone after him as he ran off.

As they ran, it seemed as if the trees were beginning to thin out. In spite of this, the undergrowth remained as dark as ever, like the world had a dimmer switch which somebody had forgotten to dial up again. This was particularly troublesome for two people in particular. "Blech! Cut it out before something winds up giving me a rash, would ya?!" Kanji bellowed at Teddie as he brushed aside wayward plant life which wound up whipping back into Kanji's face.

"Ms. Kujikawa, I acknowledge the hurry but- AAGH!" Astaire cried out as several low-hanging branches cracked over his forehead. Rise was short enough to run under them without a hitch, but that didn't leave much time for a detour. It paled in comparison to the tree creatures that lived in the Darkroot Garden, but it would've been a lie to say he didn't feel it.

Oh, the joys of being tall.

But their pain was worth it. In the distance, some form of light was forming behind the seemingly never ending flora. Finally, something akin to a destination!

Everyone emerged from the forest, looked up, then stood with their mouths agape.

"So… you know how we entered Astaire's gate back there, and that sorta thing would usually have taken us to the dungeon?" Yosuke began, his mouth the only one not hanging open loosely. "I started wondering on the way here. What if the reason we're not seeing any shadows in there was because that forest _wasn't_ the dungeon? That we hadn't made it there yet." He scratched the back of his head idly. "It, uh… looks like I was right."

It was a tower. Or rather, a world that seemed to layer up on itself somehow, higher and higher into the sky. From somewhere up above, a thick deluge of lava poured endlessly over an unseen edge, falling down endlessly and spreading out amongst the stone-cobbled streets and buildings which lay directly in front of them. Streets, buildings and battlements led to an even mightier stone center, which seemed to be connected to everything else above it.

Looking up seemed to do little. Beyond the lava, nothing else stood out. But from the way the streets and buildings twisted, flowed and wavered like the sea frozen mid-storm, it could be ascertained that it was going to be far from normal.

"Holy crap, that's big." Kanji astutely pointed out. "What is this place? Ain't like anything the Midnight Channel's made before."

Of course they wouldn't know. It was unnatural looking, yes, but that's all it was to them.

The horrified expression Astaire wore was for a very different reason. Everything was familiar. The cobbled streets, the rising tower of stone, the lingering stench of death in the air, the unsettling wind that clutched at his stomach. He knew all too well what it was.

"It's Lordran." He said quietly. "It's a twisted form of the world I once called my own."


	12. Enemy Within

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A curious item description, a winged fiend, and the last straw.

All eyes were on Astaire as he examined the structures in front of him. "Those buildings belong to the Undead Burg. I would know them anywhere." He explained. "It's not an exact replica, though. I doubt it's the _actual_ Lordran, but I'd bet my coat if it's not rightly close."

He must've been pretty sure. He _really_ liked that coat.

Rise's face paled as a sickening thought turned her stomach over. "No way. So all that crazy stuff you told me back in Hagakure… we're going to have to go through that?! The knights, the undead soldiers, all of it?!" She said a mite hysterically. Her worries didn't quell as Astaire stepped forward, walking past Yu and the other frontline fighters. "And where do you think you're going?!"

"You won't have to go through all that I did if I go through it first." Astaire began, reaching into his coat. "I'm well familiar with the Undead Burg. Leave the fighting to me and-"

He suddenly shuddered to a halt, his hand still in the bottomless box. He knew that feeling anywhere. It was the grip of his Zweihander, without a doubt. He'd held it for so long there wasn't any doubt. It couldn't have been anything else.

But he strained and struggled. Slipped and readjusted his weakening grip. He clenched his teeth, clamped his eyes shut, let out a guttural growl as he pulled with all his might.

Yet try as he might, he simply could not pull it out.

He detached the box from inside his coat, then promptly held it out to Yukiko. "Hold this, if you please." She took it, whereupon Astaire opened it again and plunged his other arm in as well. He grunted and heaved, his back feeling like he might slip a disk if he exerted himself any further. Even with two hands, the Zweihander _absolutely refused to budge._

Yukiko stared at his struggle blankly, looking over at her friends and shrugging her shoulders. They all looked just as puzzled as she did. She looked back down at Astaire, still struggling, and decided to help by tilting the box forward a little.

All at once, Astaire braced against the impact of the handguard against his chest, stumbled backwards and found himself pinned under the sword. The sheer force of the ricasso pressing against his ribs made him feel like they were going to crack altogether. Again, it refused to budge even an inch. "What the hell? Quit playing around and get up, will ya?" Yosuke said, tapping a foot impatiently. It was only when Astaire began to wheeze and go blue in the face that he stopped.

"Would someone help him already?!" Rise dashed over and grasped at the sword's grip with both hands, trying to at least shove it aside, if not lift it entirely. Yu and Kanji were quick to follow, the three of them just about strong enough to free one of Astaire's arms. The fact that he'd been carrying something as blisteringly heavy with one hand for all this time wasn't lost on them. This was _hard._

With his arm freed, Astaire got an idea. He couldn't move the sword as he was now, that much was clear. Instead, he removed his glasses. The moment he did, he easily grasped the Zweihander's grip and hauled it over his shoulder like it weighed nothing at all. "Phew… Thanks, you three…" He panted, feeling sorry for any being he'd ever swung the sword into before now.

The pain subsided, but left Astaire with a buzzing in his head that only grew worse the longer he had the glasses off. All the same, that meant he still had time. He focused as hard as he could on the glasses in his hands, fending off the fogginess that clouded his mind.

_Bear-Made Glasses (Ultramarine)._

_A pair of glasses assembled through unknown means and said to provide the wearer greater clarity._

_Lessens the effects of foreign worlds on the wearer._

What in Gwyn's name?

"It's the glasses. The glasses make me weaker." Astaire concluded, fending off the TV Sickness as best he could. "They lessen the effects of other worlds on the wearer. But why, then…?" He trailed off, clutching at the side of his head. The TV Sickness was rapidly getting worse, his vision blurring and fading the longer he kept the glasses off.

With them, he was powerless. Without them, he might as well have been. The choice was painful but clear. Back into the box the Zweihander went, back on his face the glasses went. Back came that feeling of weakness.

"That's… I never knew that's exactly what the glasses did. Did you, Teddie?" Yu asked, fiddling with the arms of his own glasses.

Teddie shook his head. "Nope! All I knew was that they cleared away the fog in here and kept everyone healthy. This is news even to me." He said morosely, rubbing his chin.

"It _does_ seem odd that something which lessens the effects of other worlds would still allow us to utilise Personas, seeing as they are only usable here." Naoto noted, gesturing at Yukiko to start taking notes again. "Then again, Personas are a manifestation of one's true self, so it could be said that they are in fact something from _our_ world, but given a different form in this one." She concluded, tapping her revolver against her thigh.

All in all a whole lot of 'not a clear answer' as far as Astaire could see. He ran over in his head what to do, pacing back and forth. This was Lordran. This was his element, his domain. He couldn't just sit by and let them tackle it all by themselves! This line of thought was tugged astray as Yu walked up and tapped him on the arm. "Hey, don't worry. This is why we're here, right? Leave the fighting to us."

_Leave the fighting to us, he'd said._

Astaire stepped back in a daze, looking at Yu like he'd just punched him in the face. "No. No, I can't do that. You can't be serious." His voice rose gradually as he went on. "If- If I can't fight, then-!"

"You're dead weight." Yosuke finished for him, hiding his coarseness as aptly as Astaire hid his panic. "How'd it go again? _'If something doesn't involve fighting, I'm not the person to go to'_? That's how you put it, right?" He pushed past everyone else, feeling their stares boring holes into his back as he approached Astaire. "So if you can't fight, why the hell are you even here?" He finished grimly.

" _Yosuke, that's enough!"_ Yu barked, now striding towards the both of them himself and being closely tailed by Rise.

Oh, to have a retort. Something strongly thought out and witty. Something which would put him on the spot and make his eyes bulge right out of his head, something to give Astaire the upper ground.

But he didn't have one. He didn't have one because he wasn't even wrong.

The thought bit at Astaire like a horde of rats. Him. Useless. Slayer of demons, drakes and everything in between. The Chosen Undead. One of the few to see as much of Lordran as he had. Useless. And he couldn't even deny it.

"Ow, watch it!" Yosuke clutched his side as Rise withdrew her elbow, continuing to walk past him and up to Astaire.

She had her hands clasped behind her back as her expression softened. "Astaire-kun, this is your world, right? Or something close to it?" He nodded. "So that means you'd probably know stuff about this world that we wouldn't, uh-huh?" That sounded… plausible, at least. Astaire nodded slower than before. "Great! So y'know what that means?"

"Not really, no."

Before he could protest, Rise wrapped her right arm around his left, playfully bumping her shoulder against his side. "It means you're gonna help me help everyone else out! Intel double duty, yay!" She cheered, giving his arm a squeeze. "You can keep us posted on anything Kouzeon can't pick up on, can't you?"

In the face of her fluttering eyelashes and her grip on his arm, there was only one answer. "O-Of course! I can do that just rightly. Nothing we can't do as a team, right?" He forced a smile, trying not to look as uptight as he felt.

Rise giggled and beamed brightly. "Right! C'mon Senpai, lead the way!"

Yu looked between the two of them and Yosuke, finally exhaling through his nose and beckoning everyone to follow him. At least some kind of resolution had been reached. He made a mental note to have a talk with Yosuke later as the team mobilised. _  
_

* * *

Before the Undead Burg proper, the forest dipped down to a familiar-looking stone-clad area, where the grass and dirt faded into brick and mortar. The more eagle-eyed members of the Investigation Team recognised it as the arena where once they'd fought Astaire's shadow. Firelink Shrine. Or at least, the bonfire pit that sat at the center. A bonfire pit which, notably, had no bonfire.

In the bonfire's place, Yu made note of a Save Point glowing and whirling at his feet. Good. At least there was some way to get further up the world in a pinch. From the looks of what awaited them, this wasn't going to be a trip he wanted everyone to repeat too often.

Astaire grunted to himself. What he wouldn't have given to refill his estus flask. It'd have set his mind much more at ease had he-

"Oh, it's you." A hauntingly familiar voice called over from behind them. Everyone whipped around on the spot, anticipating some kind of villainous shadow or Persona user to have followed them. What they got was a destitute looking man in a set of metal armour; unshaven, dishevelled and sitting atop a downed tree. "And you've brought friends as well, isn't that nice? At least you can hollow in the company of others, I suppose." He finished with a laugh.

Someone was in the TV. Another human being was sitting on a fallen tree within the TV, without any notification from the Midnight Channel or anything. Furthermore, he was talking to Astaire like he knew him. "Wait a minute, it's you! That crestfallen fellow from the shrine in Lordran!" He said with an accusatory point in his direction. "You can't be real. I killed you with my own two hands after you went hollow! Who are you?!"

The crestfallen warrior simply laughed again. "Oh, believe you me, I'm as real as the nose on your face. Not that it matters much either way. You and I? Your little band of followers there? We're all in the same boat. There's not much any of us can do now. Better to just rot away and let things be."

"Well you're not gonna get much done by just sitting there, are you?!" Chie said, stomping forward and bending down to meet the warrior head on. "Now are you gonna quit moping and tell us why you're here, or are you just gonna wallow some more?"

The crestfallen warrior looked up to the sky with a wry smile. "I suppose it's too late to talk you out of it now." He began as he raised an armoured finger towards the stone tower at the end of the Undead Burg. "There are both paths going up and paths going down in that tower. However, one would need to climb to the very top in order to reach the bottom. Or so I've heard." He said with a shrug and a chuckle. "But you'll never get that far. Not even with all of you at it at once. You'll wind up just as mad as the rest of them, sooner or later."

Yu turned and followed his gaze, trying his hardest to get even the slightest clue of what might've been further up. "What's at the top of the tower? And why would we need to go up in order to go down?"

"Aaaah." The knight said slowly as a wide, toothy grin spread across his face. "That's the big question, isn't it? The door going down can't be opened, so there's only one other way to go. And what good would a locked door be without a key?" He finished on another laugh, hanging his head again. "But that's just hearsay. Why, nobody even knows what's down there to begin with! I can't imagine why they're so desperate in the first place."

A locked door in the TV World could only mean that there was something significant hiding behind it. However, as for what exactly it would be when combined with the otherworldly surroundings was anyone's guess. It couldn't have been Astaire's shadow, not after their last encounter. Unfortunately, that meant it could be _absolutely anything else._

Combined with the Crestfallen Warrior's general demeanour, it didn't paint a pretty picture overall.

"Ignore him." Astaire glowered at the warrior, hands in his pockets and brow low. "He sang a similar song when I first came to Lordran. Didn't even think it was worth trying to reach the first Bell of Awakening, much less anywhere beyond. Don't be drawn in by his hopelessness."

The warrior didn't respond after that. His gaze affixed on the ground in front of him and his fingers interlocked in front of him. Occasionally he'd emit a low, quiet chuckle or two, glancing up quickly at the team before gazing at the ground again.

"He won't come with us, if that's what you're waiting for." Astaire said, turning back to face the Undead Burg. "Linger here any longer and we're liable to wind up much the same."

Leaving him didn't feel right. Any human inside the TV didn't belong there, they all knew it. Standard protocol dictated that they _needed_ to save him, even as miserable as he was.

But ever still, Yu hesitated to speak out to him. If Astaire really _had_ killed him, as he claimed, what did that make him? Some kind of Undead? A being created by this twisted version of Lordran? Some kind of subconscious figment of Astaire's imagination?

Whatever he was, 'human' was looking less and less likely by the minute.

Having mulled it over, Yu turned on the spot and walked past Astaire. "Right. Come what may, we still need to find out what's up there." He brought his sword from his shoulder, gripping it with other hand. "Rise, start scanning for enemies. Astaire-san, if anything shows up that looks familiar, keep us posted on how to beat it. Everyone else stick together and watch your backs. If it's as bad as Rise makes it sound, we're going to be in for a hard run."

* * *

This was wrong.

"What the hell is that?!" Kanji all but shrieked as the emaciated, up-until-now-lifeless body began rising to its feet with a sinister gurgle, a scant moment before Kanji pounded it into the ground on instinct.

"They appear to be animate versions of the beings present in the pyramid we traversed through before." Naoto assessed, gun still trained on the Undead that Kanji had pinned. "They seem to be fairly weak. Would that be the case, Astaire-san?"

This was so, so wrong.

"Yo, big guy. Enemies on our twelve, snap out of it."

No, it was worse than wrong. It was unthinkable. The complete opposite of how it was supposed to be.

"I don't think he's listening, Yosuke-senpai." Rise guessed, waving a hand in front of Astaire's thousand mile stare.

They didn't even have armour on. That one didn't even have a shield, for Gwyn's sake. If he could have used his Zweihander, he could have swatted it all the way to the asylum and back. Like brushing away a lock of hair.

Rise's eyes suddenly lit up as she snapped her fingers. "Hey, I've got an idea!" She inhaled deeply, shoulders raising and cheeks puffed out.

He _should_ have been using his Zweihander. This was his world. His enemies. He knew the ways of Lordran better than they did. He should have been leading. He should have been killing. He should have been doing something, _anything_ to lessen the load on them. This was his time to shine. But if he couldn't fight, then what was he even good fo-

Everyone, Astaire included, jolted in surprise as Rise's breathing in became an ear-bleedingly loud shriek all at once, her face screwed up at the sheer force she put into her voice. It was so loud that it could be heard echoing further into the Burg.

" _Ms. Kujikawa_!" Came Astaire's first response, suddenly completely on guard and alert. "Whatever foul demon should dare accost you, I shall- AGH!" His second response, as it happened, was to try and pull out his Zweihander on instinct. An instinct which halted as his pulling resulted in a stomach-churning cracking sound coming from his shoulder. "Rrgh… Good Gods in Heaven above…" Astaire said through clenched teeth, tempted to begin recounting the contents of his lesson with Kanji.

Well, it'd woken him up, at least. Didn't make the crack any less cringe-inducing though, as the rest of the team soon found. It also didn't make Naoto cracking Astaire's shoulder back into place sound any less painful either.

Yosuke was looking at him. He seemed to tut to himself, shake his head and look away the moment Astaire caught himself on. If he was trying to hide it, he wasn't doing a good job of it. _"I know what he's thinking."_ Astaire thought to himself. _"Dead weight."_

Dead weight. The words still rang about in his head like the toll of the first Bell of Awakening so high above them.

Eventually it came to a head. "Don't let your guard down. Hollows of that kind fall easily, but they'll fell you just as fast if you're not careful. These ones are weak enough that all you really need to do is hit them before they hit you, but it'll only get worse from here on out." There. Try and utter the words 'dead weight' now, Hanamura.

...What in Gwyn's name was he thinking? Since when was he ever this petty towards anyone? Gods above, it was just as well he didn't say it out loud. Lord Gwyn may have saw fit to smite him where he stood if he had.

Everyone seemed to silently take Astaire's words to heart, Yu and his immediate party taking the lead and heading up a stone-carved staircase into the upper reaches of the Burg.

Out what could laughingly be called the window of the building they entered, being little beyond a square hole, it seemed evident that the only way to get to the tower was to keep heading up until they got to the large stone walkway above them. The only problem was that the staircase didn't go up any further. What _did_ go further was the lower walkway underneath.

"Nuh uh. No way. Not gonna happen." Chie said, waggling a finger in time with shaking her head. "I can deal with killing weirdo zombies from another world. I can deal with having to wash this stink out of these clothes and have five showers when I get home. But I am _NOT-"_ She pointed aggressively at the walkway leading out of the building. "- _DEALING WITH THAT!"_

Under normal circumstances, stone walkways were great. Solid, sturdy, got you from A to B, what more could you ask for?

Under normal circumstances, stone walkways did not have the supporting pillars of the path above it taking up nine tenths of the walking room. Nor did they require one to precariously shuffle around them in order to get to the other end.

"Unless you've got a better way, you're gonna have to start dealing with it real quick." Yosuke said as he peeked outside at the drop downwards. Considering falling off one side would lay them out like bloody carpets on the cobbles below and the other would leave them presumably falling forever until they starved, neither looked very favourable. "Unless there's another way back in there?"

"Hmm. I wonder." Astaire hummed thoughtfully. Before Rise could turn around and ask what was on his mind, he'd already gone and dove head-first into a large stack of wooden barrels which took up the corner of the room. Everyone looked on blankly as he rolled around like a frantic hedgehog, his head only popping out of the pile once it was reduced to wooden and metallic remains. He stood up, shook the splinters off him and frowned at the blank wall behind him. "Doesn't seem it. Looks like we're out of options."

Wait a minute, what was he looking for another way for? He'd done this before in the actual Undead Burg! This was perfect! Crossing a bridge didn't require any heavy lifting, he could do it even under the glasses' influence!

Astaire strode out confidently onto the stonework, slipping around the side of the pillar without missing a beat. "Worry not everyone! These ledges are surprisingly spacious once you- _HEY!"_ Astaire cut off as an undead gurgle came from the other side of the pillar. Everyone's eyes widened in surprise as an Undead with a spear limply toppled over the side of the walkway, swiping at Astaire as it fell into the aether below. "...It's alright! That was the only one!"

To feel relieved or to feel even worse about crossing over. Which was the more appropriate? None could say for certain.

Collectively manning up, the team walked single file around the pillar, Yu leading the way and motioning for Astaire to join Rise at the back of the line. "Everyone hold back, I wanna try something."

Not exactly eager to have his meagre usefulness taken away, Astaire held out a hand in protest. "A-Are you sure? I may be weakened but even I can-" His words were cut short as a blue card shattered in Yu's hand, Izanagi-no-Okami hovering behind him before a gale force wind exploded from behind the next pillar in their way. A trio of flailing Undead immediately shot out one side of the walkway, ejected by the wind and hot on the tail of their previously fallen companion.

Astaire promptly shut his mouth and shifted back to Rise's side.

Given Izanagi-no-Okami's aptitude for clearing the way, the only real concern anyone had was trying not to look down while increasingly large groups of Undead rocketed out of their hiding places. Each gust of wind left with a howl that dissipated slowly as the rest of the Burg echoed and wailed in its wake.

The end of the walkway wasn't long of meeting everyone else as they filed in quickly, Chie and Teddie in particular praising the ground they walked on like it were made of gold. Brows were wiped, breaths were let out and words of relief were exchanged by all.

Except, notably, Yu.

Yu was doubled over, catching his breath with one hand on his knee. He glanced up reassuringly at Yukiko as she went to his side. "Don't worry… It's just been a little while since I've had to use that much energy at once, that's all." He panted, taking off his glasses to run a hand down his face. "Maybe going all out right away wasn't the best idea…"

He felt a weight slap down on the shoulder Yukiko wasn't occupying as Kanji appeared at his side. "Don't worry Senpai, 's why we're here, isn't it? Take a breather once a while." He grinned.

"Kanji-kun is right, Senpai." Naoto added, performing some routine checks on her revolver as she spoke. "Perhaps it would be prudent to engage any further enemies without the use of our Personas, in order to assess how effective our weapons are." She gave Kanji a sideways glance, if only for a second. "Kanji-kun notwithstanding, of course."

Astaire crossed his arms and tapped his foot off the floor. Of course Kanji hadn't had a problem with facing Undead head on, there wasn't much left of these ones to face. It was like being proud of stomping an ant and boasting about how it didn't put up a fight. What they were doing now was boasting about killing said ant and thinking that doing so meant they could take down a boar.

No. No, this wouldn't do. He couldn't let this happen to them, they didn't know what they were in for.

The box. There had to be something in the box. Something he could use even in his current state. Brushing his Zweihander aside, Astaire's hand dove in and began searching for something, _anything_ of use. It didn't have to be an ultra greatsword, or a greatsword, or even a sword at all! It just had to be more powerful than nothing. If his shadow was to be believed, that he'd been through Lordran as many times as he had, one of his past selves _had_ to have wielded something of use!

"Astaire-kun?" His frantic searching was cut short as Rise's voice made him keenly aware of the sound of shoes hitting off stone. "C'mon, we need to all stick together."

That they did. The two quickly jogged over to everyone else, making good progress up a set of stone-hewn stairs which led to an opening in the top of the building they were in. All the same, Astaire remained thoroughly engaged with his search, walking a good two steps behind everyone else as he mumbled and grumbled half-mindedly.

Ricard's Rapier? The soul within didn't speak to him, so he mustn't have been strong enough for it. Artorias' Greatsword? Again, not a whiff of an answer, not to mention it was heavy as sin. He didn't even attempt to lift the Demon Greathammer floating somewhere behind it. Caesti?

...Given how Yosuke had reacted earlier, maybe Caesti weren't the wisest weapons of choice. So much for that idea.

Actually, there _was_ something there. It wasn't a weapon, it felt like a small shield, but it felt responsive enough. He felt his knuckles hit off a cold blade of metal, pushing it away with an ease that suggested it wasn't all that heavy or sizable. Gods above, he might've been onto something!

It took Astaire's head punting into Rise's stationary back to bring his attention reality-ways. She let out a squeak just as Astaire let out an apology, right before noticing everyone else affixed firmly on one direction, battle stances assumed.

He followed their gazes, and his eyes widened.

They were on top of the bridge they'd crossed the underside of. That was fine.

The central tower looked to be accessed on the same level as this bridge, past a few checkpoints with archways and massive raised gates. That was fine.

What wasn't fine was the amount of Undead in their way. What was even less fine was the equipment they had.

Worn steel, cloth and leather armour, accompanying shields, spears and swords. Sunken sockets where once lay eyes peeked out from underneath worn helmets. Lipless, lolling mouths hung open with sickening moans as their owners either shambled around aimlessly, or lay limply with their backs to the stonework.

Not an unfamiliar sight to Astaire, but the numbers were a bit off-putting. There were thirty or so, and that was merely what he could see now. They'd surely come across more on the way to the tower, no doubt about it.

To the more experienced knight, it looked a trifle. One solid swing from his Zweihander would cut a bloody swathe through them with ease. Armoured or not, the Undead had never bothered him. It was everything afterwards which saw to that.

But Astaire looked on with unease all the same. The Undead didn't concern him, nor his lack of his trademark cutter-of-bloody-swathes. It was everyone else that put him on edge. Shoulders squared, eyes narrow, battle stances long since taken. Maybe they were just being overly cautious, but they seemed _too_ on edge.

"What's our first move, Senpai?" Naoto asked, running a thumb over the hammer of her revolver, barrel trained on the closest Undead's head.

Yu swallowed, risking a step forward. "I dunno if attracting their attention all at once is a good idea. Any weaknesses, Rise?" As Rise shook her head, he turned his head back to the problem at hand, biting his lip. "Guess we've no choice." He shattered Izanagi-no-Okami's card, his glorious presence fading into view behind him. "We'll have to try take them all out at once. _Megidol-!"_

The incantation ended as an excruciating pain shot through Yu's shoulder from behind, a cry of pain forcing its way up his throat. He dared to look n horror as a thick wooden arrow shaft extended from the quickly reddening wound. Behind them. There was a stout tower behind them, an Undead archer leering down at them as it readied another arrow. "Guys, they're behind us too!"

He only realised his mistake after he'd said it. At the sound of his cry, every Undead on the bridge turned to face them at once. Those that were sitting pulled themselves up, those that were pacing aimlessly stopped and stared.

Son of a bitch.

"Senpai, move!" Yu winced as Naoto's shoved him aside, aggravating the arrow. He quickly forgave her as a second snapped uselessly against the ground where he'd been. He winced again as she took aim and at their Undead assailant, three piercingly loud shots ringing out like bolts of lightning amongst the silence. One caught the archer in the leg, sending it forward and over its perch into the ground below, lifeless on impact.

Everyone bristled as the horde of Undead let out a simultaneous moan and began shambling towards them, weapons raised. "Oh, crap…" Yu said through gritted teeth, lifting his sword with his unpierced arm. "We might have to give up on the four person rule. I'll need you all for this."

Everyone had begun backing away slowly, save for Rise at Yu's words. "What?! Senpai, I can't keep track of that many people all at the same time! What if something happens to you and I can't check for it?!"

"We don't have a choice, Rise. Astaire-san, what would you do at a time like this?!" Yu barked.

This was _dire,_ the pit in Astaire's stomach told him. He had to think of something. "Uh… I'd usually cut them all down in one swing! Zweihanders are good at that!" And here he was without a Zweihander. Useful. "I… I've never needed to do any more than that! These sorts wouldn't be much to me at my full power!"

He heard a frustrated sound from his right, immediately knowing it was Yosuke. "Well that's not going to do us much good right now, is it?! Can't you think of _anything_ better than that?!" He seethed, knives held in a reverse grip in either hand, teeth bared.

_It's not my fault you're not as strong as I am._ Astaire thought to himself before shaking his head. What an unknightly thing to say, or even think in the first place! Calm. Calm down. Think. "Just try hitting them already! The armour doesn't make up for how weak they are!"

The distance between the closest Undead and Yu was shortening. Without anything better to hope for, Yu stepped forward and slashed at his shambling opponent, the Blade of Totsuka digging into its side with a meaty whack.

The Undead kept coming.

Another slash, this time at its neck.

The Undead kept coming.

Another three shots from Naoto easily tore through the Undead's chestpiece and head. Two in the heart and one in the side of the temple.

And yet, the Undead kept coming.

Everyone's eyes were wide. That was Yu's strongest sword. It was a clean shot through the head. And they'd done little but anger the rotting fiend even more. Yu leapt out of the way as the Hollow soldier jabbed at him with its spear, taking the opportunity to swipe at it as it limply tried to recover.

Kanji bashed at the soldiers with his shoulder laid into the shield he'd brought, toppling a good few of them over, but little more than that. They staggered back to their feet just as quickly as they'd fallen. Naoto fired wildly into the crowd, each bullet doing as much as the last, for a sum total of nothing.

"No way. You're not serious, are you?" Astaire backed away, holding his arm in front of Rise as he went. "You didn't come in here with weapons that haven't got any Titanite in them, did you?!" He asked fearfully, his face a few shades paler than usual. Given the incredulous look everybody not currently engaged was giving him, he got his answer. "Oh Gods above, you did."

Yu sliced at his Undead attacker's legs, forcing it to the ground before a fifth slice sent its head rolling away behind it. "Is it really that important?!" He asked before he intercepted a sword coming down on him from another Hollow.

Astaire felt his heart quiver in his chest. This was exactly what he was afraid of. Yukiko and Teddie were kept busy as they launched healing spells at whoever cried out first, the wounds deep and painful. Chie successfully dodged incoming attacks, but her own kicks did little damage. Yu was one-armed and struggling to fend off other attacks, never mind launch his own. Kanji and Naoto were back to back, Sukuna-Hikona tossing out one physical attack after another and quickly beginning to drain its user of energy. And Yosuke…

"Goddamnit, would you stop being so useless and _HELP US SOMEHOW?!"_ He shouted wildly, dodging hits as best he could and circling around the Hollows, trying to draw them away from everyone else.

Finally, he heard Rise behind him. Soft, sad whimpers which were bordering on full sobs. The sound cut at him like a searing knife to his chest.

"Ms. Kujikawa." He said quietly, turning to her. Rise looked up, tears in her eyes, and blinked as Astaire placed something in her hands. "Hold on to these for me, please." She blinked again, wiping away her tears on her sleeve.

Astaire had handed her his glasses.

An almighty crashing sound shook the battlements to their core, the sound of burning and gurgling and crashing metal all forming into one cacophonous roar of noise. Astaire swung wildly from side to side, getting stuck into the center mass of the crowd of Hollows and tearing through them with his wide, powerful, lengthy swings. Each came with a crash. Each crash accompanied a new choir of pained, long-dead voices as the Hollows fell limp to the ground, seared and parted.

It had taken only a second, but Astaire had cleared away most of the Hollows before anyone could register he was fighting. "Mr. Narukami! Kick the shields away and strike once they're exposed!" He belted out, flattening another three Hollows with one strike. "Yosuke!" Oh damn it all, why'd it have to be him? "Daggers are most effective from the back! Circle around and stab them from there!" He wasted no time in doing so, ambly shifting behind his nearest Hollow and driving both Malahks into their back, kicking them onto the ground after. "Kanji! Stay where you are!"

Before Kanji could ask for something a little more active, Astaire ran up to the Undead that was mindlessly whaling on his shield, swinging the blade in such a way that the parrying hooks gouged into its back with a sickening crunch. He then reeled back again, swinging the Zweihander with such unbridled force that the top half of the Hollow completely left the bottom, cutting the Hollow's pained cries short.

Yu kicked and retaliated. Yosuke danced around nimbly and tore Hollow backs to shreds. Kanji bashed any nearby Hollows off balance long enough for Astaire to crush them flat.

Within no time at all, all that was left were corpses. Thankfully, none bore a Yasogami High uniform.

From Undead utterances to complete silence. The change was startling, especially considering how fast it had happened.

Yosuke brought his hands behind his head, trying to control his breathing. "Holy shit dude. Holy shit. We coulda died there! Legit died!" He said, eyes fixed on the corpses at their feet. "They're real different from Shadows. Real, real different." He broke eye contact with the Hollows at his feet and found himself working his way up to Astaire, panting as much as the rest of them. "Why didn't you do that earlier, huh?! Didn't think of telling us all that before you got a chance to play the hero too?!"

As much as Astaire would have liked to protest, he felt his sickness come back tenfold, bringing him to his knees after he put his sword away. He clutched at his head, white noise filling the space between his ears as he clenched his eyes to fend it off. It had first felt like it would make him sick, now it felt like something was clawing at his heart and scratching at the inside of his skull.

It hurt. It hurt so, so much.

Hanamura. Hanamura. He just wouldn't keep his mouth shut. Wouldn't stop yammering on even after Astaire found himself heaving, feeling like he was trying to cough up a lung. He couldn't hear him over the white noise. All he knew was that whatever he was saying was _really beginning to piss him off._ Oh, Hanamura. That rat, Hanamura. See how smart he sounds when the bastard was face to face with-

"Astaire-kun! Are you alright?!" Rise cried, running over with his glasses in hand. The moment she slipped them back onto his face, it seemed as though Astaire's thoughts unmuddled themselves completely. His eyes opened, no longer strained. His heart was unclawed and his skull unscratched.

" _Good Gods above."_ Astaire thought inwardly. _"Whatever was I thinking just now? That didn't sound like me at all._ " He told himself, taking a deep breath and bringing himself to his feet. _"It's just the sickness getting to me. Must get a fellow's thoughts all out of sorts._ " He continued reassuring himself, dusting off his knees and coat. "Thank you, Ms. Kujikawa." He finally said, shooting Rise a lopsided grin.

"Wow Stairry-kun! You went through them like they were made of butter!" Teddie said, jumping on the spot. "Of course, if things had gotten _really_ serious I could have handled them all myself…" He grinned mischievously.

His grin disappeared as Astaire' brow dropped. "Handled them all without a scrap of titanite? Don't be ridiculous, it's a wonder any of you managed to kill them at all. Such wanton carelessness will only usher you all to your graves that much quicker." He said as he stuck a hand in his coat, tongue sticking out.

Yu looked between him and the Blade of Totsuka in his hands. "So no matter how strong our weapons are, they're not worth using if they don't have any of this titanite stuff?"

Astaire nodded back. "Even a blade wielded by Artorias himself would be worth little against this world's fiends without even a hint of it." He brought his hand back out, clutching a small metal shield and stuffing it under his arm, going back into the box for seconds. "I have more than a few pieces in here, but we'd either need a blacksmith or a bonfire before we made much use of them. And from the looks of things…" He pulled out a longsword and tossed it into his dominant hand, "...we'll be hard pressed to find either in here unless old Andre shows up."

Yu took a mental note. _Introduce Astaire and Daidara as soon as possible._ "If we stick to using magic it's going to bleed us dry way too quickly. After all that just now, I don't want us running out of healing magic when we most need it." He said, furrowing his brow as he turned to the team. "Naoto, swap out with Chie. Teddie, you come in and give Yukiko a rest for now. Kanji, stay where you are. We'll focus on using physical skills and Teddie can keep us topped up should things go south."

As the team began rearranging, something jabbed at Astaire from inside. Gods, he didn't want to say it. He _really_ didn't want to say it. "Hang about, Mr. Narukami. Won't you consider letting Yosuke into the fray?" But sard it all, he had to. "Out of the lot of you, he's the only one with weapons that might make do in their current state. Extra damage from behind and all that."

"Count me in." Yosuke said far too quickly, stepping forward with a spring in his step. "Kanji, take five. It's time for some revenge, fresh-cooked Hanamura style!" He touted boastfully, knives twirling between his fingers. "Besides, somebody's gotta look out for Naoto-kun while we're all busy." He couldn't help but add with a grin.

"Shut up, Hanamura."

"I-I do not require protecting." The both of them said at once before falling silent.

"Excellent, then we'd best proceed with caution. Get caught out like that again and we'll be in trouble." Astaire said as he briskly strode past Yosuke, suddenly adorned with leather armour, accompanied by steel pauldrons and greaves.

The metal shifted as Yosuke latched onto his shoulder. "And what do you think _you're_ doing? We've already got four people for the party and you're not one of them. Get back with everyone else before _you_ start causing trouble." Yosuke lifted his chin, glaring at Astaire all the while. "Not like that'd be anything new."

The sound of leather on leather accompanied Astaire's fist clenching as he narrowed his eyes. His gaze worked over to Rise, who fidgeted on the spot uneasily. "...Ms. Kujikawa. You can't keep track of all of us at once, can you?" She shook her head sadly. "I see. In that case, don't keep track of me." With that, he pushed his glasses up his nose and dashed in front of the party, making a beeline for the bridge.

"Hey, get back here!" Yosuke called out, wasting no time in pursuing him. "I already had to chase Chie today, I can chase you down just as easily!"

Yu made another mental note. _Get a leash for Chie AND Yosuke. Maybe Astaire too. Rise could keep it._ "Everyone after them! Rise, keep an eye out for any enemies, don't worry about us for now!"

Dead weight, he'd said. Useless, he'd said.

Time to show the cocky little upstart who the useless one was.

* * *

Astaire tore his longsword out through the side of the Undead's neck, a stream of oozing undead blood coating the blade. He dodged an attack from behind, parrying the follow up with his buckler and driving his sword deep into its chest. It fell limp on his blade before he kicked it to the ground.

More. He had to kill more of them. Hanamura was up to seven, meaning he was gaining on him.

Yosuke dodged every blow expertly, flitting behind every Undead that dared shamble his way and skewering their spines with both daggers at once. He chanced a look at Astaire, kicking away a shield and impaling its holder without hesitation.

He hated to admit it, but he was doing scarily well, even when weakened. Nothing had landed a hit on him yet, and he wasn't the one with dodge-enhancing daggers. "Getting tired yet?!" He called over, deftly placing himself behind his next victim.

Astaire didn't answer. His energy was better saved for results, not banter. Much less so with him. He followed up on a backstep with a slash, the titanite-reinforced blade tearing easily through the Undead coming up on him. He rounded on the swordsman behind him, bringing his other hand to the blade and slicing upwards, sending his target reeling back with a gurgle.

Battlement cleared. Onto the next one.

Astaire and Yosuke sprinted after each other, limbs flailing and armour rattling as they ran past the next archway and engaged yet more Undead, each splitting off and hacking the sorry souls to bits before they could even react.

"Uh, Senpai?" Kanji began, holding his shield behind him over his shoulder. "Shouldn't we be helpin' them out?"

Everyone's casual stroll drew to a halt as an Undead head rolled in front of them, mouth open. "I think they've got it covered." Yu said, stepping over it carefully.

Her attention only set on two targets, Rise opened and closed her mouth for what must have been the tenth time in minutes. Every time something loomed up behind Astaire, close enough to breathe down his neck, it was dead before she could even warn him about it. Between the two of them, the Undead never had a fighting chance.

They were so efficient that it was off-putting, Rise thought to herself.

"Look! We're almost at the tower now!" Yukiko astutely noted. The massive stone bridge only had two more archways to go, and the fogged-over entrance to the tower was inching closer and closer by the minute.

"Keep going you two, you're doing beary well!" Teddie cheered on from the sidelines, thankful he hadn't needed a single healing spell the entire time.

His words fell on distracted ears. Astaire reached into his coat and hurled a black firebomb at the Undead situated on top of the archway, ducking out of range of the firebomb it tossed back. With an explosion of ceramic-sharded fire, the body hit the ground in flames. The sound of the impact rang out like a gong, telling each fighter to cease and catch their breaths.

Only when they were doubled over and their faces red did they take any notice of their teammates following up behind them. "So?" Yosuke said between panting, wiping his forehead. "Who won?" Everyone looked between themselves, exchanging puzzled looks and shrugs in equal measure. "Y'know, who killed more of them? Who was the better fighter?"

"What?! _That's_ what you were doing?!" Chie barked, stomping forward to a Yosuke who didn't have the energy to run away. "Ooh, you're such an idiot! What if something went wrong and we couldn't heal you in time? What if you messed up and got yourself killed over the head of some stupid game?!" She punctuated her words by pulling at Yosuke's ear, ignoring his complaints. "You'd better not have put him up to this, Astaire-kun, or else I'll-!"

"Shoosh."

Chie blinked. "Wh-What?! Don't 'shoosh' me, I'm asking if you-!"

"Be quiet! Listen!" Astaire whispered. Chie obliged and reluctantly shut up as the Burg fell silent. No Undead moans, no footsteps, nothing.

No, wait. There _was_ something. It was unlike anything anyone beyond Astaire had ever heard. A quiet sort of 'jingling' sound, if one had to describe it. Astaire took a tentative step forward, eyes trained on the archway beyond them, the last one before the entrance to the tower. The bridge beyond was lengthy. Lengthy enough to sprint across for a good while. Combined with that sound, it could only mean…

"Ah-hah!" Astaire's eyes lit up with glee as he peeked behind the archway, a small, rock-bodied, mineral-looking creature with a massive, glimmering growth on its back looking back up at him and promptly scarpering, scuttling off down the bridge. "You can't run from me, Crystal Lizard! My cohorts need Twinkling Titanite and you're in just the right place at just the right time!" He called after it, sword raised as he gave chase.

Rise took a step forward, ready to chase after Astaire and see what was so exciting, until something caught her ear. The sound of metal on stone. She jolted back just as a massive, rusted portcullis crashed to the ground mere inches from her feet. "What the…? Astaire-kun, wait!" She cried out. Yet still he ran on singlemindedly.

The Crystal Lizard let out a pained cry as Astaire's leaping attack struck it lifeless. "Yes!" Astaire pumped his fist as he ripped the glimmering mineral from the creature's back, turning around and holding it up for everyone to see. "I got it! With this we…" He stopped short as he noticed the fallen portcullis, as well as Rise's face poking through one of the spaces, Kouzeon's telltale blue shimmer fading from behind her.

" _Astaire-kun, something big's coming!_ " She screamed, eyes clenched and voice cracking.

No sooner had she said it did Astaire hear an ungodly loud roar from somewhere very far off. A roar that sounded awfully familiar. Familiar in a way that, when combined with his current environment, gave him a most unwelcome idea of what exactly was coming.

A shadow darkened the entire bridge, with leathery wings that could sweep up gales and claws that could eviscerate all but the strongest armour. Astaire felt his heart sink to his greaves as he shielded his eyes from the impact of the creature's landing kicking up loose rocks and debris. When he dared to look up, the soul-piercing eyes of the Hellkite Drake looked back.

But something was different. Its scales were a royal yellow and bore tiny crystals which got larger towards the spine, some as thick as Astaire's arm. It was unlike anything he'd ever seen. So imposing and fearsome that words failed him as he stood agog.

"Holy hell…" Kanji murmured. In an instant he was next to Rise, grasping at the portcullis and straining. "W-We gotta get this gate up quick!" He said, the rust pressing painfully into his hands as he heaved upwards.

Teddie joined him, but only to pry at Kanji instead of the gate. "Kanji-kun, knock it off! Throwing your back out isn't going to help anyone!"

Given the gate hadn't budged an inch, Kanji conceded. But no way was Astaire fighting that thing on his own. "Takeji-Zaiten! _Ziodyne that bastard!"_

Astaire's eyes lit up at the sight of Kanji's Persona. Lightning, of course! If anything would bring this colossal menace to its knees, it'd be lightning!

Or so he thought, anyway.

The fearsome bolts of lightning did indeed strike the drake in the back, pulsing with ferocious power that even Astaire could feel from the ground. But the Drake did nothing. The crystals aligning its body glimmered and gleamed a soft yellow as they seemed to soak up the electricity from the air. The drake took the attack in stride, narrowing its eyes at Astaire as if asking _'Is that the best you can do?'_

"Oh no. Oh no no no, this is bad…" Rise said from underneath Kouzeon's visor. "Senpai, it's resistant to everything! The only thing that it doesn't resist is lightning because it absorbs it instead!" She forced Kouzeon's visor up and threw herself back to the portcullis, screaming with all her might, " _ASTAIRE-KUN, RUN!"_

And run Astaire did. He dashed past the drake's head and hopped over its claws, ducking under its mighty tail as it turned to pursue him. Another roar filled the air with an electric tingle that ran over his skin, spurring him on faster.

It had absorbed lightning. The one universal weakness of all dragons, their imitators and their descendants. It hadn't just played it off like it was nothing, it'd benefitted from it. In the Age of Dragons, such a beast would surely have ripped Lord Gwyn and his army apart singlehandedly. Though he was ashamed to admit it, Astaire was scared beyond belief.

His steps slowed as he drew nearer to the portcullis, viewing everyone beyond it in greater detail.

Kanji's look of incensed frustration. Rise's teary eyes as her pupils shrunk to pinpoints. Even Yosuke looked perturbed, taking an instinctive step back as the drake drew ever closer, fear evident on his face.

Astaire stopped, met Rise's eyes, then slowly turned to face the drake again. As it loomed forward, his grip on the buckler tightened. He was out of his depth. A longsword and buckler weren't drake killing weapons. Hard leather armour wasn't drake killing attire. He was so ill-equipped that he could practically feel Gravelord Nito's embrace slithering up his back, shivering in anticipation of his one, final death.

Even still, he looked the drake dead in the eye. "Don't worry. I've fought worse." Astaire lied through his teeth. "Leave it to me."

Rise's heart leapt as the drake's jaws snapped at the ground where Astaire once stood, having dodged in time to make a break for the beast's rear end. The tail. The tail would be his first target. It slammed into the ground as he approached, narrowly missing the impact and driving his sword into the scaled mass of muscle and bone.

It did nothing. The blade bounced off the scales like he'd hit the beast with a tree branch. It was a wonder the longsword hadn't snapped in two. Astaire realised his mistake only late enough for the tail to counter, slamming into his front and tossing him into a nearby parapet like a ragdoll.

The pain coursed over his entire body. He felt like he'd run a mile and leapt off a cliff at the end. He'd surely broken a bone somewhere, if not every bone in his body.

That wasn't an excuse. Astaire picked himself back up, sword in hand as the drake turned to face him, head low to the ground. Fearsome teeth, sharp as razors, lashed out at Astaire just before he narrowly sidestepped and stabbed at the drake's eye with both hands.

Again, nothing. With an eyelid - _an eyelid -_ the drake bounced Astaire's sword away like it were a toy. With naught but a nudge of its head, Astaire was sent flying into the parapets again, unable to withhold his pained cries any longer.

Estus flask. He needed an Estus flask. Just one sip would do. One little tiny sip. It would be so simple.

But it was fading. It was fading away and there were no bonfires to bring it back. He couldn't. He had to endure it.

The buckler fell limply from Astaire's off-hand as he pressed his back against the parapet for support, hauling himself to his feet once more. The drake snapped at him again, just as he ducked and made for its tail anew, off-hand limply flailing at his side. In the time it took for the drake to turn around, he could sort himself out. Get his thoughts in order. Work through the pain and-

Astaire felt the end of the drake's tail crash into his back, the tiny scale crystals acting like hooks and piercing his armour, knocking him limp as he cascaded across the ground and rolled to a stop at the portcullis, face to the ground.

Rise wanted desperately to call out to him. Ensure he was alright. The only thing stopping her was the fear that he might not answer back. Somewhere to her side, she heard Yukiko cast a Diarahan on him, and even then he was slow to get up. He left the longsword on the ground, clutching at the portcullis with his dominant hand and leaning into it, head swimming and vision clouding, even after Yukiko's magic.

Bent over as he was, his face was inches from Rise's. He looked lazily into her eyes, trying to think of anything he could say to help her stop looking so distraught. So muddled were his thoughts that he barely even reacted as he felt her palm rest on his cheek. "Stop it. Stop doing this to yourself. Find a way of opening this gate and let us help."

Astaire felt his blood ran cold. His haggard breaths stopping dead. "You don't think I can do it."

"I don't think, I know! If you keep going like this you're going to get yourself killed!" Rise's tears began welling up anew as she pounded weakly against the portcullis. "Just open the gate and we can do it together! All of us, as a team!"

Rise withdrew her hand as she noticed the look Astaire was giving her. That same horrified look he'd given Yu earlier. His gaze broke from her and flitted between everyone else, lingering on Yosuke in particular. "I'm not useless. I'm not dead weight, I'm not!" His growing mania was put on hold as the drake took a step backwards, lifting its tail back into the air.

"Listen to her, you frickin' idiot! That thing's going to crush you flat if you don't open this damn gate!" Kanji yelled, banging against the metal and ignoring the pain in his hand.

Before she could pull away to stop him, Astaire clasped Rise's hand, lifted his glasses off and planted them in her palm, walking off before she could do anything about it. "Astaire-kun, don't! What about the TV sickness?!" She cried after him, dread filling her heart.

If he heard her, he didn't let on. The drake had his full attention as it raised its tail high into the air above him, letting out a roar as it forcefully brought it back down, eyes glimmering with a lust for death.

There was an almighty crash, another bellowing roar, and the sound of blood spraying out over the immediate area. In the time leading up to the tail hitting the ground, Astaire had reached into his coat and swung his Zweihander overhead with reckless abandon. The surge of raw momentum and titanite-infused power shredded the drake's tail like it were made of straw, separating body from appendage in an instant and covering Astaire in a fresh, blood-red coating.

If the drake hadn't been angry before, Astaire had fixed that right up. With a single flap of its wings, the beast retreated to the other end of the bridge, a grim rumble forming in its chest as a deluge of sparks and electricity cascaded from its jaw.

"Don't just stand there, it's going to attack!" Rise said, her voice rattling about in Astaire's head. He didn't reply, but the way he erratically scanned around him suggested he wasn't ignoring her. She bit her lip at Kouzeon's map of the area; the bridge was completely straight, there were no spots to hide behind. Where could he even run to?

Wait, no! There _was_ something! "The tail! Get behind the tail!"

Astaire vaulted over the tail and into safety just as the electric crackling of the drake's lightning hit a breaking point. There was a flash of light and an ear-splittingly loud boom as a thick, forked arc of lightning decimated everything in its path, destroying bricks on the walkway, singing the parapets black and turning the very center of the portcullis white-hot.

The team looked amongst themselves after having shielded their eyes, gazing up at Takeji-Zaiten as it stood with its arms splayed between them and the gate. Kanji mimicked the motion below him, sweating profusely. "S-Shit. Thought it was gonna hit us."

"If it launches another, it just might." Naoto noted as the metal began settling to a darker crimson. "The metal's structure will have been compromised as a result of experiencing thermal shock. If it does it again, that structure might give way entirely." As soon as she'd said it aloud, Naoto raised her eyebrows and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Astaire-san! Let it hit the gate again!"

Had Naoto said something? Astaire swore she did, but it felt like every sense he had was muffled. His vision was fading in and out, his chest felt tight, everything sounded like he was underwater. It was hard to focus on any one thing.

But that drake needed to die. That was clear. If everything else was to be swamped and left imperceivable, that was the one constant. _The drake needed to die._

Astaire rose to his feet and swung at the dismembered tail, cutting a chaos-seared fissure lengthways. The scales successfully pried away, he forced his hand inside the open wound, working between muscle and sinew as he felt around.

"Ooh, what's he doing?!" Yukiko said enthusiastically as her eyes lit up, ignoring those amongst her friends who winced and gagged as bits of viscera and blood pooled at Astaire's feet. "Do you think he's finally lost it? Should we give him his glasses back?"

"You got a screw loose or somethin'?" Kanji called out, resisting the urge to clasp the red-hot gate again. "Quit messin' around with that thing and start-!"

A gag-inducing noise, somewhere between flesh rending and bone cracking, gave Kanji pause as his hand went to his mouth and willed his breakfast back into place. Astaire heaved and lurched away from the tail, appearing to be pulling at something inside. Each lurch deformed the surface layer of scales, like a snake coughing up something far bigger than itself. Whatever it was that he had hold of, it was big.

With one final strain, Astaire roared as he retrieved his prize, slicked with drake blood and heavy as sin. A mighty slab of bone and scale, as tall as Astaire and rivalling Havel's greatshield for thickness. Blood streaked down the ribcage-shaped pattern on the front, catching on the branches which splayed out from the center.

_Lightning Drake Greatshield_

_This shield, one of the rare dragon arms, is formed from the tail of the Lightning Drake, a deformed, augmented being constructed in the space between worlds. Boasts exceptional lightning defence._

_The shield is imbued with a mystical power, to be released when held in the off-hand of one with remarkable strength._

Without a moment to waste, Astaire hauled the shield to his side and sprinted into the fray, charging towards the drake as it reeled its head back, sparks flying from its jaw anew. It sounded like there was somebody yelling behind him. Something about getting back into hiding and… something. It was too muggy, too clouded. And that _bastard_ of a drake still wasn't dead.

Rise could see it clearly, even without Kouzeon. The drake was going to fire before Astaire was halfway across the bridge. " _Astaire-kun, please listen to me! If you don't turn back it's going to hit you head on!"_ Rise cried, not bothering to wipe away the tears that fell from under Kouzeon's visor. _"Please… please don't die in front of me…"_ She wavered, realising that even transmitting her words directly into his head wasn't going to stop him.

They could do little but wait for the impact. Once the drake fired again and destroyed the portcullis, they'd need to rush in and kill it, with or without Astaire. From the way Yu was looking at it right now, he was putting his bets on 'without.' He clutched the fabric on his sleeves as he folded his arms, an anxious anticipation washing over him.

The drake fired. Another flash of light, another earth-rocking boom as the bolt fired off.

The gate remained untouched.

Halfway down the bridge, Astaire braced against the greatshield and powered through the ferocious beam of light, keeping his head low as it forked and arced around the edges, passing him by entirely. It felt like bracing against a punch from an unruly giant who also had knuckles that were searing hot. But the drake _still wasn't dead. Ignore it._

Everyone gawked as Astaire whipped the shield to the side, scattering the lightning uselessly to his side with a grunt.

_Now the drake would die._

Rise clasped her hands together at her chest as relief mixed together with anxiety. Yes, Astaire was alive, but something still didn't seem right. His Zweihander dragged across the ground behind him, leaving a trail of sparks in its wake as he sprinted with his shoulders hunched and his head held low.

She had to say something. Get an answer from him to be sure he was okay. Kouzeon channeled him directly as Rise took a deep breath, trying her best to quell her fears lest they slip out all at once. But as the line opened, and Rise opened her mouth to speak, she was immediately drowned out. Violent grunting, panting and barely-withheld growls greeted her from the other end.

Her first, most worrying thought was that it sounded more like an animal on the other end than it did any kind of human. Her thumb trembled as it ran over the frame of the glasses in her palm. Whatever was happening to him without them, it sounded horrifying.

The telltale flash of light only sunk Rise's heart further towards the ground. She hadn't been watching the drake. Had Astaire protected himself in time? Had he made it? If Takeji-Zaiten were to cease shielding everyone, would he still be there? It was impossible to say.

Perhaps once upon a time drakes were more intelligent creatures. Seath the Scaleless certainly provided a good case for the rest of dragonkind, but the jury was still out on drakes. Perhaps they were just as intelligent as their ancient counterparts. Perhaps their imitation of them extended only to the physical, leaving their mental faculties lacking in comparison.

Whatever the case may have been, even the drake could sense the sheer malice and malevolence from the knight as he surged forward, eyes on fire. Lightning brewed in the beast's breast, one more to finally be rid of the threat once and for all. The drake opened its jaws with a mighty roar, a thunderous clap sounding out as the knight-

-was suddenly eye-to-eye with the monster. At the side of its head. Out of reach of the lightning. The drake's entire body quaked as Astaire's Zweihander made contact and slammed its head to the ground. Heat seeped in through the scales adorning the drake's head, the sword's inhumane weight parting them like they were waxen.

But he didn't stop there. The first blow was followed by another. And another. And another. Each bone-shattering hit came far too quickly to have been delivered by any mere human. No mortal man could have swung something _that_ large _that_ fast. Yet Astaire pounded and hammered away regardless.

On the other end of the bridge, the drake's final bolt of lightning made short work of the gate, the center having been reduced to a molten hole curtained by pieces of seeping white-hot metal. Yu leapt through and immediately broke into a sprint, turning only to yell at everyone else. "Alright, we're in! Everyone form up on me, we need to take that thing down, and fast!"

Rise nearly knocked Teddie off his feet entirely as she barrelled past everyone else, holding on to Astaire's glasses for dear life. He was alive, thank God, but without them he was clearly suffering, and no force inside the TV or out was going to stop her getting them back to him.

Astaire looked up as the drake staggered weakly, the burning fire inside him all but visible in his blank, dilated eyes.

_Had to kill the drake. Not useless if it's dead. Trying to stomp. Dodge out of the way, strike the leg. Trying to swipe with neck. Use shield, strike after. Roll out from under drake. Looks tired. Not good enough. Not dead. Had to kill the drake._ _**Had to kill the drake NOW.** _

The monster loomed over Astaire and suddenly lunged forward, jaw extended and teeth primed to rip him in two. The strike was like lightning itself, nobody could dodge it, not even Astaire. The drake clamped down confidently, awaiting the sweet sensation of steel perforating under its unstoppable might.

The drake stopped. Its jaw stopped. It had bitten something hard. Something so hard that it didn't even bend under the drake shutting its jaw as strongly as it could manage.

Astaire peeked out from behind the Lightning Drake Greatshield, fiery gaze affixed on the drake once more. Before the drake could pull away, he put both hands to the shield and slammed it full-force into the ground, loosing a mighty shockwave that wrenched the drake's jaws apart with a pained roar. As an injured whimper rolled past the beast's forked tongue, its entire body fell limp at Astaire's feet. It wasn't dead, but it certainly wasn't running away in a hurry.

"Astaire-kun!" Rise cried from behind, neck and neck with Yu as they rushed towards the fallen beast. Kouzeon appeared behind her, letting out a familiar green flash that washed over the entire team, Astaire included. " _NOW!"_

Without a word, Astaire discarded the greatshield off to his side and raised the Zweihander above his head with both hands. He felt the power course through his arms, augmented even further by Rise charging him up, and ploughed into the drake's head before it even had time to react. The impact could be felt by everyone in the team as it rocked the ground underneath them, chunks of meat, scale and bone exploding from the epicentre of the strike.

And with that, the drake was felled.

* * *

"He… he actually did it." Yukiko said in quiet awe as everyone approached the end of the bridge, the cobbles they walked on getting redder the farther they walked. The source of the discolouration, Astaire, was still standing above the drake's body, his hand visibly shaking on the grip of his sword. No other part of him had moved since the impact.

At some point Rise had overtaken Yu on the run up, her legs feeling like they might give out and her lungs feeling like they were on fire. She was never the best when it came to sports, given sprinting didn't usually make up a good portion of her daily routine, but at that moment she could have outrun an olympic athlete. "Oh my god! Astaire-kun, talk to us!" She cried, gaze affixed on his back.

At the sound of her voice, there was an upwards jolt from the grip of Astaire's sword as his hand ceased shaking. He'd hit the drake so hard that he'd embedded his sword in the stone beneath. However, much to Rise's surprise, he didn't turn to face her. Nor did he speak, or laugh, or sigh, or anything. He stood as still as a stone, facing towards the drake's body.

Wait, of course. He'd been acting odd during the fight with the drake too. Rise brought up the ultramarine glasses, making sure to clear the lenses of any sweat her palms had provided, and held them out to him. "C'mon, hurry up and put these back on! Who knows what having them off after doing all that will do to you?" She extended her arm to his back. He had to turn around. She _wanted_ him to turn around. But he never did. He just stood there. "...Astaire-kun? Is something-?"

Rise jumped in surprise as Astaire grunted fiercely and slammed the Zweihander into the drake's body again. And again. And again. With each swing, more blood and viscera splayed out across the ground as Astaire's grunting grew more animalistic over time.

There was no way the glasses weren't causing it. But how could Rise hand them to him in this state? Getting even the slightest distance near him would wind up with her getting lopped in half. She instead found herself backing away in fear, shaking her head as if to try and tell herself it _couldn't_ have been him. Not Astaire.

Not again.

"Senpai…" Rise's voice was barely above a whisper as she hung back, placing herself behind Yu. "We need to get out of here, right now! Maybe if we get him out, he'll stop acting like this! There's no way he'll put his glasses back on like this!" She clutched her hands to her chest, practically on the verge of begging as the tears muddled her vision.

Yu rubbed his chin in thought, right up until something appeared in the corner of his eye. A save point. One that likely appeared in response to the drake's death. Without hesitation he stood atop it and pulled out a Goho-M, just in time for everyone else to catch up from behind them. "Woah, hey, simmer down! Thing's dead enough as it is, it don't need much more help!" Kanji called out to Astaire, noting his lack of a reaction.

Yu rubbed the bridge of his nose. Yosuke was going to have a field day with this. "Well, what're we waiting for, partner?! Get us outta here before he runs out of dragon to tear apart!" Yosuke himself shouted, giving Yu a serious look from a safe distance behind the rampage.

"Right! We're going back to the entrance, everyone hold on!" Yu announced as he tightened his grip on the Goho-M, a blinding light filling everyone's eyes and gently teleporting them back whence they came. When everyone opened their eyes, they were gazing out at the Undead Burg from the remains of Firelink Shrine once again.

The first immediate sound upon relocation was that of Astaire's distressed, ragged breaths through his teeth. Without a drake to tenderise, he'd fallen on his knees and clutched his temples with both hands, rocking back and forth as he murmured unintelligibly. His eyes were clenched shut, his hair clinging to his head as sweat beaded on his forehead.

Rise was knelt down next to him, gently setting her hands on his cheeks and whispering, "Hey now, don't be like that. Everything will be just fine once we get these glasses on, okay?" She smiled gently, wiping her own eyes dry. She reached into her pocket and retrieved the glasses, extending the legs and-

"Oh, what is it now?" Chie asked someone indignantly, catching Rise's ear. "If you're gonna come out with more depressing BS, you can just walk right back where you came from!" She said, hands on her hips.

Chie's face fell at the same time everyone else's did. An Undead gurgle came from behind Rise's back, prompting her to turn around and knocking her onto the ground as she backed away. She looked up fearfully, meeting eyes with the Crestfallen Warrior from earlier. His skin stretched across his lipless face as his mouth lolled open, another groan rolling past his blackened teeth. He gripped a longsword in his right hand as he shambled ever closer to the team.

"No way! We were talking to him just a few minutes ago! How could he have changed this quickly?!" Teddie asked as he hid behind Kanji. "We can't kill someone so soon after talking to them, can we?!"

It certainly felt different. Killing something that looked so human to begin with was bad enough, but watching the life leave the eyes of someone they'd shared words with, however unpleasant? It felt like legitimate murder. It was this very thought that stopped anyone acting sooner, staying their respective weapons as the morality of the situation plagued them.

All of a sudden the Crestfallen Warrior broke into a sprint, raising the longsword above its head and aiming for Rise. They'd tarried too long. By now, he was too close for anyone to intercept. Rise could do little but raise her arms in front of her head and clench her eyes shut, waiting for the pain to come.

A metallic sound, the sound of metal piercing and bending in on itself, stopped the Crestfallen Warrior dead in his tracks. Rise opened her eyes wide, just in time to catch the sight of the Zweihander's parrying hooks piercing the warrior's chest and launching him across the shrine like he weighed nothing at all. Even before he'd hit the ground, a deranged Astaire was chasing him down, sword raised anew and a look of insatiable anger chiselled on his face.

Everyone watched in horror as the Crestfallen Warrior went to get back up, only for Astaire to completely flatten him again, grunting wildly all the while. It was one thing to hulk out on a drake that'd knocked him half to death, it was another thing entirely to do the same to something relatively human looking.

But he didn't hold back. If anything, what he'd done to the drake looked tame by comparison. The ground shook with every hit, and continued shaking long after the Crestfallen Warrior had stopped gurgling.

A tight knot formed in Rise's throat as she watched. It was just like the other day when she was onstage, but far, _far_ worse. She quickly shook her head, rationalising that _it was a Hollow, not a reporter_ and furthermore _something's wrong with him, I just don't know what._

At least, she hoped that was the explanation.

"Alright, that's enough. He's dead." Yosuke piped up, daring to approach Astaire from behind as he flailed his sword about recklessly. Again, words did nothing to stop him. Yosuke furrowed his brow and spoke again. "Hey, are you listening to me?! I said he's already dead, you psychopath! Get off him already!"

" _Shut the fuck up, Hanamura."_

Yosuke froze. Rise's jaw nearly hit the floor. The forest fell silent.

" _Always 'dead weight' this and 'useless' that. Always yammering on and on and on about how worthless I am, in combat or otherwise."_ Astaire continued, turning around slowly. " _And now that I've gone and shown you up, you have the gall to sit there and try to take the high ground anyway? Is nothing I do right to you?!"_

It looked like Astaire. Carried the same sword as Astaire. But it by no means _sounded_ like Astaire. Yosuke took a careful step back as his voice began to distort, getting worse as he turned around further.

" _I've had it up to here with you. I'm not going to sit by any longer and let you run my name through the dirt!"_

Finally, Astaire turned to face everyone fully, drawing a gasp from everyone behind Yosuke.

His eyes glowed a sickly yellow, his voice now distorted fully.

" _I'll show you exactly who the dead weight is here."_ Astaire's Shadow finished with a cheshire grin.


	13. The True Self

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A berserker, some night-time comfort, and a nightmare.

" _Get back here, Hanamura!"_ Astaire's Shadow roared, zigzagging between trees as he kept his gaze fixed on Yosuke, who hopped between branches and trunks in the leafy canopy above. _"I thought you'd relish the chance to fight me, but it seems you're all bloody talk!"_ He taunted as he hopped over a thick set of roots at his feet.

For a guy swinging around a sword that big, Astaire should _not_ have been as fast as he was. However, speed and agility were two very different things, and in one of them Yosuke had him outclassed. He could swing all he liked, but he'd never reach him up amongst the treetops.

Still, it also meant Yosuke couldn't reach _him_ either. As he somersaulted off branches and quickly changed directions in an attempt to throw Astaire off, Yosuke tried formulating a plan. Running around would tire one of them out eventually, and as much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't see himself being the one to outlast the other.

" _Yosuke-senpai, where are you going?! Get back here right now so we can take care of Astaire-kun together!"_ Came the sound of Rise's voice inside his head.

"I would if he weren't trying to _take care_ of me himself right now!" Yosuke said between breaths as he changed direction once again, hearing an unsatisfied grunt come from underneath him as Astaire shifted his momentum to follow.

" _Well he's going to take care of you a lot faster if you don't get back here! We can't chase you and try to slap Astaire-kun's glasses back on him at the same time!"_

Yosuke almost tripped and fell at that. "What?! You're actually going to try that?! You _do_ realise he could cut your head off from anywhere within ten feet of him, don't you?!" The branch he'd been on was chopped away from below as he spoke. The trees must have been getting shorter. Yosuke rolled his eyes and tutted. "Alright, fine! Just gotta keep heading for the tower again, right?"

" _Yeah, we're all still there. Just be- What was that, Senpai?"_ Rise said more quietly. _"O-Oh, right. Senpai says… if things go south, try your best to subdue Astaire-kun and drag him back here instead."_ Yosuke almost tripped again. There were only two commands in that sentence and both were easier said than done, by several orders of magnitude. _"By the way, Yosuke-senpai?"_ Rise piped up again after a short moment of silence. _"If you do need to subdue Astaire-kun… please try not to hurt him!"_

It took a few blinks and head shakes for Yosuke to process what she'd just asked him. "Are you for real?! Rise, I'm gonna have a hard time doing one without the other! If you're gonna tell anybody not to hurt anybody, you might wanna start with the guy who's trying to cut me in half!"

Rise made some sort of uncomfortable noise on the other end before dropping the connection again. _Smooth one, Hanamura. Big points._ Yosuke thought to himself. But what else was he supposed to say? Sparing Astaire any damage was a luxury he couldn't afford, and certainly not one his Shadow would offer him in turn.

As Yosuke vaulted ever closer to the Firelink Clearing, something occurred to him. The trees were still pretty dense, even if the clearing was within walking distance now.

Hardly ideal Zweihander-swinging conditions, he would think.

"You wanna fight me one on one, huh?!" He called down to the Shadow. "I think I'm starting to warm up to the idea myself!" And with that, he ceased running and dove between the branches, keeping his momentum as he rolled on the landing and continued sprinting. He stole a glance behind him, making note of Astaire's Shadow's transfixed yellow gaze and manic grin. "C'mon, try and keep up, I dare you!"

All of a sudden, Yosuke was gone.

Astaire's Shadow frowned and ground to a halt, plunging the forest into silence. No footsteps. No rustling of branches. He hadn't leapt up again, and no matter how many times his gaze passed over the trees surrounding him, there was no trace of Hanamura around him either. It was like he'd just vanished into thin air. Astaire's Shadow could do little but seethe. _"Where are you hiding, you hideous letch?! Afraid to fight me face to face?!"_

Pain. A sudden line of pain from the side, above his left thigh. "Not afraid to, just not stupid enough!" Yosuke jeered as he dashed behind the Shadow's back, the cut he'd left drawing a roar and a swing of his Zweihander. The weapon had barely left his side before Yosuke was away again, as though he were one with the wind itself.

Astaire's Shadow barely had time to get his bearings before another slice let flow the blood from atop his right thigh. "Everything was fine before you came here!" Yosuke growled as another two slices opened on the Shadow's shoulders. "The Midnight Channel had finally shut up, people had stopped going missing, it was great! Only took a whole frickin' year for us to get there!" Then another two on his thighs. "Then you show up and it all starts going to hell again! Everything that's happened has been tied to _you!_ We'd still be living peacefully if you'd never come here! _"_

Yosuke's heart leapt as the Shadow's piercing yellow eyes jerked around to face him, Zweihander already primed to strike. _"You've got a big mouth, Hanamura."_ He grinned, slamming the sword into the ground just slow enough for Yosuke to leap out of the way. _"I mightn't have caught you if you'd only learn to keep it shut. Or perhaps…"_ The shadow lifted the sword airborne again. _"...if you'd done that, maybe we wouldn't be fighting at all!"_

He dodged again. Like trying to catch smoke, every time Astaire's Shadow drew close he simply seemed to disappear. He was already among the trees again, gone with the wind. But Astaire's Shadow would be damned if he was going to have it as easy this time. He reached into the box affixed to his armour, just as he felt the newest surge of pain slice across his tailbone.

He hadn't been facing the right way. As far as Yosuke could tell, his head hadn't moved either. He'd had no time to react and certainly no clue where he was. But even still, something unseeable, quick and powerful had lashed out from him before he could run away, pain hitting him for the first time as the shock from the… blast, he settled on, knocked him back against one of the thicker trees.

The Shadow chuckled, wiggling the Ivory Talisman in front of himself. " _Done, are you? Hardly a surprise; Wrath of the Gods will do that to you."_ He said as he raised his sword and wound up for a full swing. " _Shows what you get for being such a cocky little runt!"_

Time seemed to slow down as Yosuke watched the blade rush towards him. He didn't like Astaire, not one bit, but his strength was undeniable. Chances were he'd not only lop him in half, but take down the tree he had his back to as well. He had to do something, but trying to scramble away now would only mean Astaire would kill him in two hits as opposed to one.

The will to call on Takehaya Suzano-o was hard to resist, but Yu had been clear in the past. _'Don't use Personas on anything other than Shadows. Even if someone succumbs to a Marin Karin and turns on you, don't risk it.'_

His alternative wouldn't earn him many more points from Yu or Rise, but it was the only way. Yosuke's hand fled to the inside of his blazer, shortly before Astaire's Shadow felt three separate jolts of pain line his chest, forcing his sword into the ground. He cried out in pain and clenched his eyes shut, giving Yosuke ample time to disappear amongst the trees again.

Three sizable kunai perforated Astaire's Shadow's torso as fresh trickles of crimson seeped out and soaked in amongst the dried dragon blood from earlier. He laid eyes on them, watching as they moved in time with his haggard breaths. The pain only got worse with visual confirmation of the wounds. Intense, deep, throbbing pain, spreading further with every second.

It was like the striking of a match amongst gasoline. The throbbing seemed to synchronise with the Shadow's heartbeat, as well as the strenuous pulsing in his addled head. A thick haze of unbridled fury clouded over what little restraint Astaire's Shadow had to begin with as it looked back down at the knives adorning his torso.

With little regard for consequence, Astaire's Shadow ripped the first of the three knives out, quickening the flow of blood from the wound it left behind. His hand shook as he clenched the kunai tighter. With a rabid snarl and bared teeth he turned on a heel and sprinted after Yosuke anew, eyes ablaze with murderous intent. Hanamura wasn't going to get one over on him this time. Not on his life.

* * *

Curling her hair around her finger didn't help. Nor did pacing back and forth. Nor did twiddling her thumbs and interlocking her fingers. Biting her lip wasn't doing much either. No matter what Rise tried, the unmistakable weight of worry sat firm in her chest.

Looking around her, she wasn't the only one. Chie kicked a stone off into the distance, hands on her hips as she muttered something unrepeatable at the ground while Yukiko tried to calm her. Even Senpai looked troubled, stroking his chin and creasing his brow.

It was only right to be worried. Senpai would've been concerned about any of the team being in this position, but he'd known Yosuke the longest. He had many friends, but he only had the one 'partner.'

Her self-appointed break now decidedly over, Kouzeon's visor slipped back over Rise's eyes. "Senpai, Senpai! Yosuke-senpai's almost here!" She cheered. "Looks like he's put some distance between himself and Astaire-kun's Shadow, so he should be alright."

Somewhere to her right, Yu let out a relieved sigh. "Good. Thanks, Rise. How are his health and energy reserves?"

"Not perfect. He must've gotten hit at least once, but it's nothing serious." She said with no small amount of her own relief. For the sake of assessing the whole situation, she cast Kouzeon's focus over to Astaire's Shadow. Her heart sank at the sight of his vitals. Back to Yosuke. Open communications. " _Yosuke-senpai! Why is Astaire-kun's health so low?!"_

"He was going to cut me clean in half, I didn't have a choice! It was either lights out for me or lights dimmed for him!" He replied between breaths, stealing a glance over his shoulder. He still wasn't there. "If he's in such bad shape, I wouldn't be feeling like he's catching up on me!"

He heard Rise scoff inside his head. "Oh come on! He isn't catching up on you at all, he's…" She trailed off suddenly. "Oh. Oh no. Yosuke-senpai, run faster!"

Yosuke daren't have replied. Rise's command was like a spur to his side, propelling him ever faster through the trees. Whatever she'd seen, whatever had made her react the way she did, Yosuke only knew he didn't want to be alone when it caught up to him. Looking over his shoulder was out of the question.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Yosuke heard it. Heavy, rhythmic thumps encroaching from behind him, cracking branches and kicking up leaves. Distant first, and growing louder the longer he dared listen.

There was no way. He couldn't have caught up to him that quickly. He was faster than him in every way, after all. It had to be something else. Some other manner of creature from within the forest.

The latent power within Malakh jolted Yosuke's body to the side as something thick and metallic lodged itself in a tree just beyond him. It was a kunai. His throwing kunai, to be precise. Stained with blood on one end.

Holy crap, it _was_ him.

But it didn't matter now. The canopy was thinning out, the darkness of the forest giving way to the light of the clearing. Everyone seemed to bolt upright at the sight of him, none more so than Chie and Yu. Yosuke beamed as he crossed the threshold between danger and safety, taking in the sheer-

There was a thud, followed by the sound of splintering wood as Astaire's Zweihander narrowly nipped at the tails of Yosuke's blazer. It lodged itself firmly in the trunk of a tree he'd passed at the last second, the blade burying itself a good third of the way in. " _Run all you like Hanamura, it's only your own time you're wasting!"_ Astaire's Shadow fumed, hair unkempt and eyes like a wildfire. _"If you think there's anywhere I won't chase you to, you've got another thing coming!"_

He said that, but the Shadow looked much worse for wear. Two knives remained in his chest, the third's wound tainting the ground beneath him as blood cascaded down his armour. His breaths were laboured and heavy, his stance weak as he leaned against his sword in the tree.

Yosuke wheeled around a safe distance away, suddenly feeling more confident with his friends behind him. "You can chase me all you like. All you're doing is proving me right." He began, pointing a single Malakh at the Shadow accusingly. "Did you even listen to a word I said in the forest? You must've done, because you were listening for me coming, weren't you? You had to have listened."

"Yosuke-senpai!" Rise's voice quivered through her fingers."W-What did you do to him?!"

"So if you were listening, what's your response? Can you deny anything I've said so far?" Yosuke continued, Rise be damned. "I'm right, aren't I? And you _know_ I'm right."

" _I don't know what the hell you're on about, Hanamura."_ Astaire's Shadow hissed through his teeth.

Anger swelled as Yosuke took a step forward. "Say that all you like, you may have pulled the wool over everyone else's eyes, but you won't do it to me! I'm not going to sit down and let you hurt my friends!" He bellowed, hands tightening around his knives.

Yu stepped in and roughly latched a hand onto Yosuke's shoulder. "Yosuke, calm down! You're not making things any easier!"

He held him back for all of half a second before Yosuke swatted him away. "I don't care what Rise or anyone else thinks of you! Just because everybody else seems to like you _doesn't mean that I have to like you as well!"_ He finished, angrily baring both knives to Astaire's Shadow.

The Shadow chuckled to itself as he found the strength to stand up straight. _"Funny, that."_ He let go of his tree-lodged sword as his hands found their way to the knives in his chest. _"I know exactly what you mean."_ With one swift motion and two fresh splatters of blood, Astaire's Shadow tore the knives out of his chest, grinning through the pain as it locked eyes with Yosuke and settled into a battle stance.

But not just any battle stance. He settled into _Yosuke's._

" _I'll give you one thing, Hanamura."_ The Shadow said as he deftly twirled the knives in between his fingers. _"You have one hell of a strong soul, if your knives are anything to go by."_ He grinned, tapping an antsy foot off the ground.

He spun the knives the exact same way. He stood the exact same way. He even tapped his foot just like he did. He'd copied Yosuke's body language down to the finest detail. Whatever confidence had swelled in Yosuke's breast abruptly began to waver at the sight of his own movements playing out in front of him.

It was like looking into a mirror. A mirror stained with at least three layers of blood and looking to make his the fourth.

Before anyone could move to act, Astaire's Shadow had surged forward and locked blades with Yosuke, who'd barely had time to defend himself. He wasn't just showing off, Yosuke realised, _he was fast, too._ The realisation must've shown on his face, because the Shadow grinned all the wider at the sight of it. _"Hah! Poor Hanamura can't keep a straight face when someone's just as fast as he is!"_ The grin immediately snapped to a grim scowl as he leaned in closer to Yosuke's face, so close their foreheads were practically touching. _"I didn't think you'd be so easily shook by the thought of a fair fight."_

The deadlock broke in the blink of an eye as a thin red line dashed across the Shadow's cheek and began to bleed. "Who said this was a fair fight?" Yosuke snapped as he leapt to a safe distance. Perhaps being shaken might have been the right response. Perhaps it would have been better not to fight at all. But Astaire's Shadow's attitude was _really pissing him off._

Wiping the blood from his cheek, Astaire's Shadow snorted and lunged towards Yosuke anew, blades at the ready and primed for his throat. The two devolved into a blur of limbs and metal as they struck at each other with equal amounts of speed and agility, both trying their damndest to dodge the punishment the other was dishing out.

"Damnit, Yosuke…" Yu sighed as he raised his hand to meet the arcana card in front of him. "We're putting an end to this! _Trumpeter!_ " With a clenched fist and a surge of blue light, the pure-white skeletal form of the Trumpeter rose above Yu's head. "Everyone focus on buffing Yosuke and debuffing the Shadow!"

Were it not for the fact that it was holding the real Astaire's body hostage, it would have been all too easy for any member of the team to wipe out the Shadow. But destroying it wasn't the issue, as much as _not_ destroying it was. Though it frustrated Yu to not simply step in and give his best friend a hand, this was the most they could manage for now.

As the fight between Yosuke and Astaire's Shadow continued, something quickly became evident. Yosuke Hanamura was a much better Yosuke Hanamura than the Shadow could ever hope to be. He had his moves down pat, his body twisted and struck in the exact same ways, by all means they should have been evenly matched. But they weren't. Something was tipping the scales in Yosuke's favour.

The knives. It had to be the knives. They were evenly matched on every other front but that one. Astaire's Shadow growled and grunted between strikes, every two of his yielding just enough time for Yosuke to counter with one of his own. The difference was that Yosuke's were landing.

Now it was _his_ turn to be smug. "I told you this wasn't a fair fight! You can copy me all you want, but you can't outdo the original!" He boasted between dodges. Just as he was getting into a confident stride, he felt a surge of electrifying energy tingle around his whole body. He began striking faster, moving quicker, everything about him seemed to amp right up to eleven. "Aww, yeah! This just keeps getting better and better!"

Heat Riser. No doubt about it. As if his knives on their own hadn't been enough of a boon. Yosuke shot Naoto a thumbs up, now fending off the Shadow's attacks with a single hand. _"Don't you dare look away from me, Hanamura!"_ He yelled, face going red both from exertion and frustration.

Without warning, something hit the Shadow, too.

Whatever had happened to Yosuke - he couldn't be sure, exactly, - it felt like the complete opposite had happened to him. The distant sound of a trumpet sounding out rang around in his ears. His limbs suddenly felt like they were made of lead, his arms were suddenly bereft of strength, and every fibre of his being seemed to loosen in unison.

His attacks became less frequent, and when they came, they lacked the force that once lay behind them. The Shadow panted heavily, swiping at Yosuke weakly in spite of knowing it was all useless. He couldn't even find it in him to resist as Yosuke disarmed him, both throwing knives clattering to the ground unceremoniously.

"Thanks for the Debilitate, partner! Rise, his glasses!" Yosuke called over, holding one knife to the Shadow's head as it hung lowly, facing the ground. He couldn't help but smirk. "This is what happens when you start causing trouble for my friends. Stick to greatswords next time."

" _Oh, dry up, would you?"_

Yosuke blinked. "Huh? What'd you-?"

A flash of gold and silver slashed open the back of Yosuke's hand, quickly drawing blood. He let out a cry of agony and staggered back, only to find that their positions had swapped. Now _he_ was looking up the blade of the Shadow's weapon, a curved, glimmering gold sword. _"All I need stick to is a better soul than yours, and I've got plenty to pick from."_

He could boast all he liked, they were still buffed and debuffed respectively. Ignoring his bleeding hand, Yosuke bore his teeth and lashed out with both knives.

Another shimmer of gold and silver, followed by a pair of metallic clangs, cast his attack aside.

_Oh, crap._

He tried again. Nothing. A third time. The same. Finally, he glanced desperately over to the side, to his friends as they sprinted towards them. "R-Rise, would you mind hurrying up with those glasses already?!"

" _What's the use?"_ With a final glimmering streak of light, Yosuke felt his daggers fly from his hands, joining his kunai. _"You'll be dead by the time they get here."_ The Shadow shoved Yosuke roughly, his back thumping off the trunk of a tree. Before he could resist, both gold and silver tracers were at his throat like a pair of gilded scissors. _"Speak your last, Hanamura."_

" _ASTAIRE-KUN, NO!"_ Rise screamed, sprinting towards them. The rest of the team wasn't far off her, having seen how far south the fight was going.

For the briefest of moments, the Shadow's face dropped. Gone was the smug, the snide and the malicious. He turned his head, yellow eyes and all, and met Rise's own. _"M-Ms.-?"_

" _Takehaya Suzano-o! Brave Blade!"_

Astaire's Shadow didn't feel the pain at first. He rocketed backwards, limbs limp like a ragdoll, before he impacted with the ground and rolled to a stop, face down. _Then_ he felt the pain. A deep, diagonal gash across his torso had made short work of his armour, staining the grass and stonework red with each roll he'd made. Heavy. Throbbing. Searing. Even with his expanded knowledge, the Shadow couldn't imagine a word severe enough to describe the pain.

He could hear yelling of some kind. It was hard to tell who it was, what with the pain in his head fuzzing everything out of focus. Hanamura was amongst them though. Hanamura. _Hanamura._ The name alone was enough to force the Shadow's limbs into motion, lifting his chest off the ground and forcing his leaden head to look up. _"Hanamura... "_ He snarled at the array of blurred and unfocused colours before him. _"I'm not useless, you bastard, I'm not. Get back and here and let me show you. I'll show you alright. I could kill everything in this godforsaken other world if I had to. So don't you da-"_

The Shadow's rambling came to an end as Rise knelt down and slipped Astaire's glasses back on, hands trembling.

Astaire's eyes went wide as the sickly yellow glow faded away, darkening to a dimmer orange. Then his vision cleared. The entirety of the Investigation Team stood before him, expressions ranging from worried to wary. None were more worried than Rise, who had knelt next to him and looked about ready to cry. "A-Astaire-kun?" She _sounded_ about ready to cry, too.

Everything that had transpired over the last few minutes hit Astaire all at once. He brought a hand around in front of his face, tensing and relaxing it as though he couldn't believe it was his. When he seemed convinced, both hands began to shake as he clutched either side of his head, eyes manic as he lowered his forehead to the ground. "I-I'm sorry. I'm s-so sorry..." He finally said, voice shaking.

Rise clutched her chest and sighed. "You're finally back to normal… Thank goodness. You're not dying, are you?!" She quickly added as her eyes rocketed open again.

"I… I don't- agh!" The harsh terrain was doing little to soothe Astaire's newly-opened chest. He clenched his fists, ground his teeth, anything that felt like it might make him feel better. They were no substitute for an Estus Flask, however. "M-My flask, Ms. Kuji-"

"Oh, I don't think you'll be needing that. Leave it to me." Yukiko chimed in as she evoked Sumeo-Okami above her. "This'll fix you up. _Diarahan!"_

For the briefest of moments, Astaire felt awash with a cooling wave of energy, and began to let out a sigh. Said sigh quickly deteriorated into an ungodly scream as the wounds on his chest suddenly seemed to aggravate all at once, as though someone were trying to pull them back together by hand. Astaire convulsed in pain on the ground, wrapping his arms around his chest and bellowing loudly.

Yukiko was transfixed, her face having gone completely white as she looked on in horror. "I-I don't understand! Healing's never been that bad before, has it?!" She asked the rest of the team, some of whom averted their eyes until Astaire's hysterics had begun to fade.

He was panting heavily, and his head was hung low, but he was now on his hands and knees, if nothing else. Only after his breathing began to steady did Rise find hers doing the same. Gently, as though afraid he'd shatter at her touch, she held out a hand. "Do you… need help standing?"

Astaire shook his head. "N-No. Besides, the b-blood…"

He trailed off as Rise stood up again and thrust a hand down to him. "It's not the blood that I'm worried about, dummy! Just give me your hand already!"

That would mark the second fight he lost with a member of the Investigation team that day. Begrudgingly, Astaire slipped his right hand under his opposite arm and began worming his way out of his blood-caked gauntlet. It was, Rise would later realise, the first time he _hadn't_ changed his clothes instantaneously. Reddened leather now replaced by bare skin, the two locked hands.

It was only once Astaire had begun to stand that it became clear just how much damage Yosuke had done.

Brave Blade had left a large, diagonal slash across his front, neighboured by the three sizable holes the kunai had left. His upper arms and hips were coated in smaller cuts and slices, reducing the thinner parts of his armour to ribbons. There was enough of a window into his body beneath to see that the smaller injuries were gone, but the four damning wounds on Astaire's chest remained visible. Not bleeding, nor actively exposing his innards to the world, but it was clear that Yukiko's magic had only partially healed them over.

"Holy hell, Yosuke-senpai." Kanji said as he strode past everyone else, coming to Astaire's side as he stood up shakily. He decided to forego asking him - because knowing him he'd just start protesting - Kanji took the arm Rise wasn't occupying and looped it over his shoulders. "Alright, c'mon. Ain't no way you're walkin' back looking like that. Take it easy." A demand he quickly regretted as Astaire leaned his weight into him, staggering him off to the side. "Okay, maybe not _that_ easy!"

Balance regained, Astaire grasped Kanji's shoulder properly and managed a smile. One which Kanji returned in kind as they hobbled towards the rest of the group.

Of course, the first person to attract Astaire's gaze was no surprise. "Yosuke…" He began, right before realising he had no idea how to continue. What could he say to someone he'd nearly decapitated naught but a few minutes ago? Was there anything he _could_ say? He doubted, given what he'd told his Shadow in the forest, that anything he could come up with would change how he felt. Should he even have been trying, then? Well, of course he should have, but _how?_

" _Ahem."_ Rise sauntered over to Yosuke, arms crossed and eyes narrow. "Don't you have anything you'd like to say to Astaire-kun, Yosuke-senpai?" She asked, peaking an eyebrow at the end.

Yosuke gazed at the ground, a mixed look of frustration and shame on his face as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'm, uh... " He started slowly, glancing away. "I'm sorry too. Kinda lost it a little towards the end."

Much to Astaire's surprise, he actually sounded… genuine. He really meant what he said. "I-It's fine, really." Astaire let out a sigh as he lowered his head. "I haven't the words to tell you how sorry I am. Under normal circumstances, I would never even think-"

"Don't give me that." Yosuke snapped. "Don't even start."

"Yosuke-senpai!" Rise flared up immediately, accompanied by a similar tone of disapproval from most everyone else.

Except Chie, Yosuke noted.

"You can deny it all you want. Pretend that it's not you, that it's some other evil monster wearing your face, but that doesn't change the fact that your Shadow _is_ you! Like it or not, it's still a reflection of who you really are!" Yosuke paused to point accusingly at Astaire. "And your Shadow wanted to chop my freaking head off."

"N-No! That's not true in the slightest!" Astaire cried, squirming under Kanji's grip and trying uselessly to free himself. "I can assure you, I'd never-"

"Say so openly? Yeah, that's kinda the point." Panic set in Astaire's chest as Takehaya Suzano-o began floating behind Yosuke. "This guy was my Shadow. Everyone's Personas are the same." Excluding Yu, but now wasn't the time. "And we only got them because we admittedly that our Shadows were parts of us! Oh sure, nobody liked it, and it wasn't easy to do, but it's the truth! Every single time! The only difference is that we all had the balls to face them outright! Yours isn't any different from ours, with the exception that none of ours wanted to kill anybody right from the get-go!"

Without hesitation, Rise stepped forward and slapped Yosuke across the face.

Between the two of them, Yosuke had very much been better off than Astaire after the fight. Save for the occasional nick here and there, as well as the one solid wound on the back of his hand - now closed over thanks to Yukiko - he'd looked pretty well off. That much Astaire knew for certain.

It said something to him, then, that Yosuke looked more beaten up by Rise's slap than anything he himself had done.

"Stop it. Not one more word." Rise said quietly, voice quivering.

Yosuke ran his hand over the newly-formed red mark on his cheek, His mouth ajar before he seemed to regain focus. "Rise…"

"No!" She shouted, raising her head and letting tears roll down her cheeks. "Astaire-kun would never have attacked you if it wasn't for his Shadow doing… whatever it just did! Isn't that right, Astaire-kun?" She turned in time to see Astaire nod, looking a little shellshocked himself.

Trying to argue with a crying girl was hard enough, never mind Rise Kujikawa. But goddamnit if Yosuke wasn't going to try. He clenched his fists and steeled his resolve. "Rise… you know just as well as I do that Shadows represent how we truly feel. Whether we'll admit it or not. You can't just ignore this. None of us can."

"Didn't you hear him after he landed?! He wanted to fight you to show that he wasn't useless! He isn't some mindless killer, I know he's not!" Rise continued to insist.

From behind her, Kanji joined in. "An' don't act like you weren't ragging on him before now, neither. Hell, you say that kinda shit to anyone else and I think they'd have snapped long before now."

And from behind Yosuke came Chie, hands on her hips as she stood as his side. "That doesn't mean he deserves to be attacked over it, never mind killed! Yosuke's an idiot, but nobody's _that_ bad!" She proclaimed, ignoring Yosuke's asking of _exactly whose side she was on_ beside her.

"Astaire-kun doesn't _want_ to kill him, not really! I'm telling you, it's his Shadow!" Rise sidestepped and faced Chie directly, eyes ablaze. "Don't act like nobody's Shadow ever attacked us after they were denied the first time! It's been awhile since then, but that doesn't mean the rule doesn't still apply!"

Back and forth, back and forth. Kanji shouted something that left his right ear ringing, Chie would bite back with something else. Rise would fume at whichever out of Yosuke and her had spoken last, going red in the face from how vehemently she was standing up for him.

He should have been pleased that she was going through all the trouble for his sake. But something didn't feel right. Something that itched at the back of his mind but refused to work its way mouth-ward. Something so thought-consuming that in time he stopped following the argument, instead fixated on the terrible, nagging feeling that refused to leave him.

"That's enough! All of you!"

The argument fell silent as Yu finally raised his voice. Though he'd sounded angry, the way he furrowed his brow and massaged the bridge of his nose made him look tired above all else. "Everyone just be quiet for a minute, please. Astaire-san." Astaire shot up to attention, ignoring the protests from his wounds. "What you wound up doing today was unacceptable." Rise tried to interrupt, but was cut off as Yu continued. "If you want to be a part of the team and help us with operations inside the TV World, this can't happen again. You _need_ to deal with your Shadow. Sooner rather than later."

 _Easy for you to say, considering you didn't have one._ Rise had to stop herself from saying.

"I shall try, Mr. Narukami." Astaire said earnestly.

Yosuke tutted and rolled his eyes. "Never took this long before now…"

"Yosuke." Yu began again, in such a way that Yosuke instantly regretted having ever spoken. "You're not helping matters here. For all we know, Astaire-san's Shadow mightn't have attacked anyone at all if you weren't antagonising him in the first place." He narrowed his eyes as Yosuke mouthed the word _antagonising_ silently. "I don't know what's gotten into you as of late, but you need a serious attitude adjustment. You needn't start pointing fingers when you're both equally at fault."

Yosuke shot Astaire a quick glance and turned away, hands back in his pockets. Astaire lowered his head and pushed his glasses further up his nose. If shame had weight, it'd have buried him underground in the blink of an eye.

What a day. Yu looked between the two of them and sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "We'll talk about it later. Just, for now… I don't know about the rest of you," Excluding the one needing a support to walk, "but I'm tired and I want to go home."

If there was only one thing upon which everyone could agree, it was that.

A shroud of pregnant silence blanketed the Investigation Team as they turned and made for the trees. Those on Astaire and Yosuke's respective sides had said all they'd wanted to, and those on the fence about the whole matter didn't know what to say at all. If anything were to cure the situation, time away from the whole sordid affair seemed like a good place to start.

Yosuke veered away from the group and scooped up both Malakhs from the ground, stuffing the kunai Astaire had used back into his blazer in turn. On the way back to the group, the glint of gold and silver in his peripheral vision caught his eye. At the foot of the tree Astaire had him up against, the Gold and Silver Tracers respectively sat gathering dust in the grass.

"Hrrrngh! Rrrrrrrrrrgh!" Teddie grunted and groaned, tugging at the Zweihander's hilt uselessly. "It's! No! Use!" He uttered between heaves before he finally gave up, wiping his brow. "Sorry Stairry-kun, I can't get it out. It's wedged in there tighter than a clam at high tide!"

Fantastic, as if the day hadn't been bad enough. Astaire shut his eyes and frowned. "It's quite alright, Teddie. Thank you for trying, at least." He ran a hand over the grip and gave it a half-hearted tug. It didn't even give an inch in return. "I suppose I may leave it here. Farewell for now, old friend."

With a parting pat on the pommel, the group resumed their walking through the trees. "Hey." Astaire immediately went cold as he felt Yosuke lightly jab his shoulder from behind. "You forgot these." He said as he sidled up alongside Astaire and Kanji, shoving both Tracers in his general direction and keeping his gaze forward. "Just keep 'em away from me next time."

Astaire glanced between the weapons and Yosuke a few times before he cautiously tucked them back into his coat. "Thank you. I'm surprised you trust me enough to give them back."

"Never said I did."

* * *

Rise waved a quick goodbye to everyone before, with no small amount of manhandling, tumbling through the TV with Astaire in tow. Yu waited for the ripples on the screen to fade out before he turned back to the rest of his friends. "You guys go on ahead without me, I'm gonna stick around here a while."

Yukiko was the first to open her mouth to protest, up until the point where she saw the look Yu was shooting Yosuke from behind. "Well, if you're sure. See you later!" She said with a wave of her own, quickly ushering everyone after her as she left.

"Don't stick around here too long, Partner. Wouldn't want anything jump out at you from the forest without the rest of us around." Yosuke shrugged as he began walking after everyone else.

His stride was quickly interrupted as he let out a choking sound, as owed to the sharp tug on the back of his collar. "Good point. Maybe you should stick around with me on the off chance something _does_ happen, what do you think?" Yu said casually, throwing an arm around Yosuke's shoulders.

As he watched the backs of his friends disappear amongst the trees, Yosuke gulped. Nobody was helping him _this_ time. "S-Sure, Partner. If it'd make you feel better." He chuckled nervously as he shifted under Yu's rock-solid grip, which eventually let up when it became evident he wasn't going to run off under the pressure.

"Thanks!" Yu said with an air of faux-cheer. He stuffed a hand in one of his pockets and sauntered over to the statue of Astaire being run through the chest, rubbing his chin with his free hand. "...Some mess this has turned out to be. Feels like last year all over again."

A heavy, pointed weight sunk deep into Yosuke's chest as he watched Yu's back. "Look, if you're gonna yell at me, then just get to it already. Don't keep me in suspense like this, it's killer." He admitted, crossing his arms over the weighted area.

"I'm not going to yell at you, Yosuke. I'll even put off hitting you this time around. I just want to talk, is all." Yu said, still facing the statue.

...Somehow, Yosuke figured he might've felt better if he _had_ hit him. It'd hardly be the first time that day, and it'd be a hell of a lot quicker than whatever this was. Tentatively, he stepped forward and approached Yu's back. "...Look, I know we're not supposed to use Personas on teammates and stuff," If Astaire could truly be counted as such, "but c'mon, man! He was-"

"That's not what I want to talk about."

It seemed like every time Yu opened his mouth, the weight inside shifted and moved about elsewhere. Apparently it was just as confused as Yosuke was. "Huh? Well, what _do_ you wanna talk about?"

"I think you're onto something. About Astaire-san, that is." Yu said calmly. He must've been listening closely enough to hear Yosuke's jaw drop behind him, because he continued after it did. "I don't think you're _entirely_ right, of course, but you're not entirely wrong either."

Between having Chie side with him earlier and hearing Yu now, Yosuke couldn't help but feel pumped up. "I-I know, right?! He's totally connected to all this stuff that's been going on! He's the cause of everything that's happening here!"

Yu finally turned to face him, but not before outstretching a finger mere inches from Yosuke's nose. "On the first part, I can agree with you. The second is where you're losing me."

Again, Yosuke blinked and flapped his gums for a second. "...What? Dude, are you thinking straight right now? How can everything happen the moment after he comes here and yet he's still not the cause? How can it be his fault and not his fault at the same damn time?"

"Because by that logic, everything that happened to us is Adachi's fault." Yu shrugged as Yosuke felt his argument catch on the end of his tongue. "The Midnight Channel only became a problem after he showed up, right? Guess that means he's the reason _it_ showed up, then."

"Dude, that was different! Someone else was behind it and the fog! Someone who-"

"-We were completely unaware of right up until the end, when it all clicked." Yu finished for him. He pushed his glasses up his nose and glanced between the other statues. "The fact of the matter is that yes, Adachi caused all the trouble we went through. But the events leading to him _being able_ to cause trouble weren't the result of anything he did. If it hadn't been for that… Well, he'd probably still be less than a good person inside, but he'd only have been as harmful as the next guy."

As much as Yosuke wanted to say he was wrong, his argument was completely sound. Adachi, at the end of the day, had been a pawn in someone else's game. "So you're saying Astaire's the same, then." He concluded, gazing around the statues himself.

"I'm saying Astaire-san's probably just as ignorant of why this is all happening as we are. He's a symptom of whatever's wrong here, but he's not the cause. I mean, just look at this statue, for one." Yu motioned towards the statue of Astaire's horrific impalement, which Yosuke finally drew his own eyes towards. "What does he get out of all this? He's gotten pretty messed up in the time he's been here. It'd be like Adachi throwing _himself_ in the TV and having to fight off Shadows. It just doesn't make sense."

Yosuke briefly looked away from the grotesque stone display to glance at the others surrounding it. "He gets Rise, for one." He said a tad more bitterly than he'd meant to.

"Astaire-san didn't cross over from his world to ours for a girl he didn't even know, Yosuke. Who do you think he is, you?" He added with a snide jab in the ribs. Thankfully, Yosuke managed a lopsided grin as he thumped him back in return. "But seriously. I think deep down, you don't really think he's the cause of all this either." Yu tapped the breast of Yosuke's blazer, hitting off the Kunai inside with a metallic _clink._ "If you'd really wanted to end him quickly, wouldn't you have stabbed him in the back like he told you to earlier? That'd have saved you a lot of effort."

"Pffft." Yosuke lightly brushed Yu's hand away from his chest and rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Mr. Wannabe Psychologist."

Not a denial, Yu noted with a grin. "Really though Yosuke, listen to me. I'll agree with you that Astaire-san's been kind of… troublesome, since he's come here." He began, motioning to the statue featuring the unluckiest pair of reporters ever. "But you giving him grief over it isn't helping. I know it seems like everything's going backwards, and that the thought of that is frustrating, believe me, I know." Yu clenched the fabric on his opposing sleeve at the thought. "But doing what you did today? Picking fights whenever you can and riling him up like that? That's troublesome too. Even moreso, if it affects how we operate as a team."

Yosuke performed a double take at the phrase _'operate as a team'_. "What?! You're gonna let him come back in here after today, are you nuts?!"

But nevertheless, Yu nodded. "Yosuke, warped or not, he knows something about this part of the world. With all of us working together this could all be over before the end of the month, for all we know. But having you and Astaire-san at each other's' throats is only going to slow that down. Either you start trying to get along better with him, or I'm going to _make_ the two of you get along better."

Yosuke could only guess as to how exactly he planned on doing that, but he _was_ talking to the world ambassador for bonds and friendship, here. If anyone could find a way, he could. "...Alright, alright, fine. I get it. I'll… I'll do _something,_ I dunno. Just… could you stop looking at me like that?" He said as he shirked away from the vicious glint in Yu's eye.

Evidently, bonds and friendship was serious business.

The glint soon receded as a gentle smile softened Yu's face. "Alright, good to hear it." He trudged over to his sword, embedded in the ground next to the exit TV, and retrieved it, settling it on his shoulder. "Oh, by the way. Trying to keep an eye out for Rise's sake is good and all, but maybe tone it down a little. Wouldn't want Chie getting jealous, would you?" Yu said with a cheeky smile and pat on Yosuke's shoulder as he passed him by.

Another nudge to the ribs got Yu laughing at his Partner's scowling face. "Do a guy a favour and hurry home already, would you?!" He chided, conveniently ignoring the fact that they were both walking in the same direction.

* * *

Rise's ears perked up as she heard the shower fall silent on the other side of the bathroom door. There'd been no banging or shouting, and the water had been running for a fair amount of time, so it seemed fair to think that her little crash course on using it had ended up being taken to heart.

Not that she'd known beforehand. Astaire had been uncharacteristically quiet ever since the two had been left on their own. Of course, having four new holes in his chest and being covered head to toe in blood may well have facilitated that. Had it been anyone else they'd been inflicted upon, they mightn't have done much talking either, but they wouldn't have had much choice in the matter.

Had he uttered even one word since arriving, Rise guessed she might've felt more at ease than she currently did, but not even the comforting confines of her bedclothes was putting her at ease. She'd taken to listlessly checking her phone and rolling around the bed intermittently, right up until the shower had ceased.

The lock clicked. The door began to open. With a solitary creak, the moonlight illuminated the pale shades of Astaire's now-bloodless face as he stepped out. His charcoal hair stuck to his head, occasionally dripping onto the shoulders of his coat, which-

Wait a minute. Had he really just put his coat back on after exiting the shower? Was a towel so much to ask for?

Beating away the part of her that inexplicably seemed disappointed at his towelless form, a more pressing concern struck Rise first. The moon illuminated not only his hair, but the stony, rigid expression he wore. The same one, Rise noted, that he'd been wearing when he went in. "Oh, you got it figured out, then! Sure can't beat a nice hot shower after a long day, can you?" Rise said as she forced a smile and tried to sound cheery.

It was hard to tell, given the moon's sub-par illumination, but she swore the tips of Astaire's mouth sunk slightly at her words. Again, he didn't speak. He didn't even nod or shake his head. He simply took his place at the foot of her bed and laid his back against it, looking out at the moon in the sky without a word.

...Well that wasn't much to work off. With a pout, Rise spread her arms and threw herself back, giving the ceiling a very unfriendly glare. There had to be some way of finding out what was wrong with him. Some way of getting him to open up. Maybe it was something from earlier in the day that was vexing him, but holy crap if the list wouldn't be the length of her arm at this point. It could have been anything.

She also toyed with the idea of just asking him what was wrong outright.

Nah, that was too easy. "Gee, a lot sure happened today, didn't it?" She asked the silhouette of Astaire's head as she crossed her arms behind her own. "If there's one good thing about exploring inside the TV World, it's the night's sleep you get after. It always kno…" She trailed off as she let out a well-timed yawn. "...Knocks me out like a log."

Nothing. He didn't even twitch. Maybe he'd fallen asleep already. With a puff of her cheeks, Rise set about a second line of offence.

"That thing with your glasses is a real puzzler. I was wondering what the deal was yesterday, too, but now that we've got an answer, it's almost become more confusing all over again!" She chuckled. A peek over her covers. Still nothing. "I was thinking about it today. Something about cutting off the effects of foreign worlds, right? Maybe it means foreign like… foreign based on the world, rather than the person? Maybe if I put them on in your world, I'd lose my Persona!" She laughed, only before realising that losing Kouzeon wasn't exactly a laughing matter. But that was good! Surely Astaire would point that out to her!

Not a peep. Not even a hair out of place.

Well, it _was_ wet, so maybe that wasn't a surprise. Even still, Rise had thought it a pretty decent theory. One she was actually quite proud of, in fact. Seeing Astaire's utter lack of a reaction made her feel worse than she'd thought.

Time for theory number two, then.

"On that topic, how about that world in the TV, huh? Crazy or what? I've never seen a dungeon that complex before, and we've had some doozies! How close is it to the world you came from, on a scale of one to ten?" As was typical of him at this point, Astaire's gaze remained fixed on the moon. "I think it's got something to do with you going through all those cycles like you did. After that sort of thing, it'd be weirder if you _didn't_ have Lordran on the brain!" She again finished with a laugh.

...No? Still nothing?

Alright, this was getting ridiculous. If anyone was going to give Rise the cold shoulder, she would be damned if it was going to be the one person she shared a room with. Frustration screwed up her face as she wondered what might crack the seemingly impenetrable trance Astaire had…

...Wait a minute. Breaking him out of a trance?

She couldn't help but smile mischievously. _That,_ she knew she could do. The sheets ruffled and the bedsprings squeaked as Rise clambered onto her hands and knees and slowly homed in on Astaire's head, eyes glimmering like a panther ready to pounce. "Oh, it's no use! I can't fall asleep in this top, it's too uncomfortable! I guess I'll just have to go without it…" Rise faux-lamented. She grinned widely as she noticed Astaire's entire body bristle at once. Now for the killing blow. She leaned forward and placed her lips as close to his ear as she dared. "Since you're ignoring me, I trust you're not going to look?" She whispered sensually.

 _BANG._ Astaire's head slammed so forcefully into the table that it nearly caved the window in behind it. How exactly he'd managed to recoil in such a way as to hit it in the first place, Rise couldn't say, given how quickly it'd happened. However he'd managed it, Astaire now seemed to be struggling to decide whether to look at her or not, eyes darting madly and his face as red as a beetroot. "W-What kind of- I wouldn't dare, I-!"

"Woah woah woah, I was only joking, calm down!" Rise patted her pyjama top as proof, even tugging at the buttons to show they were all in. After a few seconds, she let out a sigh as Astaire finally settled down and began rubbing the pain out of the back of his head. "Jeez. I dunno what I was expecting, but it wasn't anything like that."

"You and I both. I think I'm starting to see stars."

"Well I had to do _something!_ How else was I supposed to get you speaking to me again?" Saying it out loud seemed to immediately harden Astaire's face again, as though her whisper had briefly wiped it from his memory. Rise stood up and put her hands to her hips. "C'mon, time to 'fess up. Tell me what's bothering you, and don't say it's nothing, either!"

At the very least, he indeed didn't say it was nothing. But that was only because he didn't say anything at all. Astaire clammed up and placed his back against the wall of the room, staring wistfully at the floor. He jumped slightly as Rise harshly strode over and sat down next to him. No getting away this time.

"I'm not gonna leave you alone until you tell me, y'know. If Inoue-san gets angry at me tomorrow when I'm all sleepy and unfocused, I'm gonna tell him it was your fault." Rise said indignantly. "I might mess up my dance moves. I might even lose my job as an idol! Oh, the horror! The humanity! How could I ever manage without-?"

"Why are you doing this?" Astaire finally said.

Rise blinked. "Eh? Doing what?"

Astaire shifted slightly, bending his knees up and resting his hands on them. "Talking to me. Trying to help. Letting me stay here. All of it."

Hadn't she already told him that staying was okay the night before? "I told you before, we're frie-"

" _I almost killed Yosuke tonight!"_ Astaire burst out all at once. "If you hadn't stepped in when you did, I'd be clutching his head like some kind of hunting trophy!" He balled his hands on his knees and hung his head low, almost as if he were about to cry.

After some time, Rise found her words. "...He almost killed you too, you know. Heck, I'd even say he was closer than you were. He's not the one with four new holes in his chest." She couldn't get the image out of her head, even now. The wounds underneath the ribbons of leather that Yosuke had reduced his armour to. _Maybe that's why I was so disappointed earlier._ She thought to herself. _It'd be nice to know they're alright now that they're cleaned._

Astaire began shaking his head, his eyes hidden by the clumps of damp black hair that were shaken free. "I was such a fool. An arrogant, ignorant, witless fool. I was so caught up in trying to show I wasn't useless. Letting my pride get the better of me."

Rise leaned in closer to him, brow lowered. "Yeah, only because he egged you on and got on your case about it! Ask anybody on the team and they'll tell you Yosuke-senpai was acting like a real jerk!" Or at least, the rest of the team minus Chie.

"This is what I'm talking about! Why are you doing this?!" Astaire asked again, turning to face Rise proper and looking legitimately upset. "Making excuse after excuse for what I did! I shouldn't even be talking to you right now! Or sitting in this room! Or even staying in this world at all! I don't deserve any of it after what I did!"

Rise rose to her feet and balled her fists at her chest. "Don't say that!" She insisted, feeling a wet heat prickle at her eyes.

She craned her head back as Astaire rose to his full height and met her eyes above her. "Weren't you there?! Aren't you aware of what happened?! _I almost killed one of your friends!"_

" _You're my friend and you almost got killed too!"_ Rise cried.

Astaire stopped dead. His rage left him as his face fell flat.

She was staring at him so intently. Her bottom lip quivered as she wiped her glistening eyes dry, but the stare she gave him was nevertheless firm and focused. "The way you're talking, the way you're acting, you make it sound like we're not even friends at all! I don't care if I've known him for longer, that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to stand up when he's been such a colossal dick to you!"

Her cursing threw Astaire for yet another loop. As frustrated as he'd been, she was _really_ showing him up. "Th-That isn't an excuse for my Shadow to try and kill him! Nothing would excuse it!" He nonetheless argued back.

Rise let out a frustrated grunt and scowled even harder. "Doesn't the fact that you're saying that now prove that you don't _literally_ wanna kill him?!"

"That's…!" Astaire began before he realised she was right. His Shadow had made it impossible to hide at this point. No, he didn't like Yosuke. It was shameful and agitating beyond words, especially given that he was close friends with his charge, but it was still true. But to the point of _murder?_ Certainly not. People who had done far worse things to him in Lordran had lived to tell the tale.

At least Yosuke had the decency not to kick him off a cliff before he spared his life.

"Do you think I'm a stripper?!"

 _What in Gwyn's name did she just say._ "I beg your pardon?! Of course you're not, whatever are you saying?!" Astaire replied all the same, reasons be damned.

"So we're agreed! I wasn't a stripper when I had my Shadow, and I'm certainly not one now." Rise suddenly squared up to him and began jabbing a finger into his shoulder repeatedly. "So just because your Shadow is a bloodthirsty killer, that doesn't mean you're one too! It may be a part of you, but that doesn't mean it's the whole thing! Your Shadow is you, but you're not your Shadow!"

At that, Astaire was speechless. He was speechless when she backed off and clasped her hands behind her back, and he was speechless when she tipped her head to the ground, hiding her eyes. "I mean… it's still a problem, and we still need to work on getting you to accept it. Even then, there's no guarantee that something like today won't happen again before you do. But _please_ don't beat yourself up over it! That's only going to make accepting it harder!"

"I…" Astaire tried to say.

He was cut off as Rise continued her tirade, still in full swing. She affixed her eyes on his fiercely. "So why am I doing this? Because you're my friend, Astaire-kun. Because I have faith that you're better than your Shadow makes you out to be, that you can change! Because I…" Rise broke her rhythm short and trailed off, clamping her mouth shut before she could say any more.

Astaire raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. "...Go on. Because you what?"

The vice grip that possessed Rise's mouth didn't let up. Whatever she'd been on the brink of saying, she swallowed it down back where it came from. When her lips finally loosened, they let slip a sigh. "Never mind, it's not important. Just stop beating yourself up over today, okay?" She asked him earnestly, looking at him with puppy-dog eyes.

In the moonlight, her face swept Astaire's breath away. Her eyes glistened and shone, her mouth parted slightly as she breathed, her hair hung around her in a mess, but that on its own was attractive, in its own way.

A slight shake of his head. _Pull yourself together man, for Gwyn's sake._ He told himself. At last came his reply: "As you wish, Ms. Kujikawa."

The sheer perfection of Rise's semi-illuminated face diminished slightly as she let out a wide yawn, putting Astaire face-to-face with her uvula. "Haaah, good… I really did mean what I said earlier, though. Dunno about you, but I'm bushed." She said tiredly, tossing herself back into bed and maneuvering back under the covers.

Astaire opted to sit back down with his back to the wall. No more face-stepping for him, thank you very much. He twiddled his thumbs and gave the floor a sidelong glance as he tried to form a proper sentence. "...You really are quite something, you know."

"Hm?" Rise hummed as she rolled over and peeked out of her covers.

"Being so willing to stand up for me, even after all I did. Never in all my days have I encountered kindness like that you've shown me, including those only my Shadow remembers, I'd reckon." He couldn't help it. He let slip a genuine grin, so wide that he had to close his eyes to accommodate it. "Thank you. You truly are one of a kind, Ms. Kujikawa."

When he opened his eyes again, Rise had rolled over onto her other side. "N-No problem, anytime! Whew, I'm beat! Goodnight, Astaire-kun!" She said all too quickly.

Had anyone other than Astaire been listening, they might've thought she were hiding something. The rapid drumming of her heartbeat would've been ample evidence to support the theory, too.

* * *

Astaire laid his head back against the wall.

Tired. So tired. Arms and legs felt like lead. Eyes were getting droopy. Everything fading to black…

He bit down on his left arm and clenched as he aggravated his chest wounds with his free hand. A remnant of the pain that'd inflicted them shot up his chest, fending off the ensuing sleepiness and causing him to bite down on himself. Gods, it hurt. It was nothing compared to earlier, but even a fraction of Brave Blade stung like a horde of hornets.

 _Not tonight, you yellow-eyed devil. Not if I can help it._ He told himself for the umpteenth time. But the pain gradually faded away, even after Astaire outright thumped his fist against the wound and knocked the air clean out of himself. Like it or not, the feeling was creeping ever closer, and the moon was still high in the sky. He had a lot of nighttime to stay awake through yet.

...But it was hopeless. Pain alone wasn't fending off sleep for long enough. It'd take fortitude. Resolve. Both of which Astaire didn't doubt having, but sleep was a bit more abstract of an opponent than he was used to.

He let a yawn escape, and all at once the will to fight back left him. The last three minutes had felt a day's length and then some. It was pointless to resist any longer. The Sandman's grip beckoned Astaire's eyes shut, and in an instant, he was gone.

* * *

Where was he?

He had to be here somewhere. After the entire preceding day, there was no way his Shadow wouldn't show up.

But as much as Astaire gazed around his introspective plane of being, it hadn't appeared yet. Nothing but pure white as far as the eye could see.

"Useless."

In a flash, Astaire's head whipped towards the source of the sound. It wasn't his voice, nor the voice of his Shadow. But he recognised it all the same.

"I always knew you'd be trouble right from the start. I didn't count on you being as useless as you are, though."

It was Yosuke. He was walking towards Astaire, having materialised from nowhere. His face was dark and sullen.

"Yosuke. Say what you will, but it's not going to work on me. Not again. Talk away, see if I care." Astaire said with a dismissive wave of his hand as he turned away. Without warning, he felt his feet give out from under him as something swept him to the ground. Landing on his back, Yosuke wasted no time in kneeling over his chest and pressing a kunai to his throat.

"Only those of us with a purpose are allowed to live in this world. You should hurry up and just go Hollow already."

Astaire's arm shook as he grasped Yosuke's and tried his best to pry the kunai from him. But it was no use. He could feel the blade graze ever more deeply into his skin with every passing second. Beads of sweat coursed down his face, he gasped hungrily at the air, his pupils shrunk to pinpricks, until finally…

"Get your hands off me, damn you!" Astaire cried as he freed a hand and punched Yosuke in the throat.

Yosuke toppled backwards, both hands at his throat as he coughed and spluttered. Astaire crawled back and pulled himself to his feet, then paused as he set eyes on Yosuke again. The pure white ground below him was now tainted with a few red spots, which widened as Yosuke's coughing turned to choking and gagging sounds.

He turned to face Astaire, hands still at his throat as blood reamed from between his fingers.

Astaire backed away slowly as the bleeding Yosuke held out a red hand to him. "No… no! A-All I did was punch you, I never meant to-!" Yet as he raised his hands in protest, Astaire's eyes went wide. He was holding a kunai himself. The twin to Yosuke's. "What?! No, this is impossible! I didn't- I couldn't have-!" He stammered, long enough for Yosuke to have gotten to his feet again.

His hands fell away from his throat, and all at once everything was awash with red. Blood poured forth from his throat like a crimson geyser, pressure rivalling a fire hose as it assaulted Astaire and covered him from head to toe. As much as he tried to shield himself, it wasn't working. The ground was slick with blood, and the next step backwards that Astaire took proved to be his last. Friction abandoned him as he toppled to the ground again.

To the ground _and into it._ The floor was like water on impact, swallowing Astaire whole and leaving him to flail wildly underneath the surface. Falling into a pool of fresh blood was bad enough.

Falling into it while not knowing how to swim? That was something else.

Somehow, all his struggling and flailing brought Astaire to the surface.

And then the blood began to boil. Quite literally.

Astaire opened his mouth to scream as the searing heat overtook his entire body, but all that did was scald the inside of his mouth as blood lapped over his head. He felt as though his entire body was burning up and breaking down, like when he used a bonfire to teleport from place to place. But it was worse. Much worse.

Blood was thicker than water, and whatever part of Astaire managed to breach the waves only wound up coated in a layer of the blistering mixture anyway. " _SOMEBODY PLEASE!"_ Astaire cried desperately as his voice began to crack _"GET ME OUT OF HERE, I BEG OF YOU!"_

"Now, now, now. Don't put up a fuss."

Oh, Gods.

Turning was impossible. Not under the circumstances. So instead, Astaire's Shadow stepped around to meet him head on, striding across the surface of the bloody deluge like it were solid. He tried to gasp as it presented itself, but another lapping wave of blood thrashed across his face with a cruel hiss.

The Shadow no longer looked like his old self. It was wearing his coat, and his human face.

"Please! For the love of God, help me! I'll accept you! I'll do whatever you want me to! _Do anything but leave me in here, please!"_ Astaire begged as the blood seemed to gain some kind of river-like current, dragging him away from his Shadow.

With a calm smirk, his Shadow walked after him with his hands in his pockets, leaving small ripples in the crimson expanse he walked on. "My, my, you're an anxious one. Why do you even want out in the first place?"

" _ARE YOU JOKING?! I'M BEING BOILED ALIVE HERE!"_ Astaire screeched as his voice cracked again. Then something began to happen. A sort of shift within him. The blood continued to bubble and splutter, but the heat was fading from his body. Instead came the cold. Bitter, biting, ravenous cold. The chill seeped into every crack and orifice Astaire had and turned him into a shivering mess, clinging to himself as he floated along the river. "P-P-Please! J-J-Just h-help m-me!" He stuttered through the cold.

The Shadow's smirk widened as it kicked a spray of blood into Astaire's eyes, coaxing another scream from him. "You're not actually cold, you know. It's just the pain overriding your heat sensing abilities. You'll wrap back around in no time." It said with a twisted grin as Astaire's jitters and shivers again turned to screams of agony. "I don't know why you're struggling anyway. _Don't act like this isn't exactly where you want to be."_

Nausea sunk into Astaire's throat as Yosuke's lifeless, blank-faced body washed down by him, throat open and bleeding.

"You can deny it all you want, but I know the truth. You nearly killed Hanamura _and you enjoyed every second of it."_

"Y-You're…" Astaire tried to bite back, but the blazing blood was beginning to impede his ability to move, let alone speak. There was no tense in his muscles, nor will to move in his legs. All there was was heat. Never ending, mind-dulling, skin-rending heat.

His Shadow, on the other hand, filled in all too happily for him. "There's no shame in it! There's nothing else to do in Lordran! Not a problem that can't be solved with beating the shit out of something or someone else! God, it's incredible! Why _wouldn't_ you enjoy it?!" It proclaimed enthusiastically, throwing its hands to the air. "It's a shame that the human world isn't like that. Or maybe it's not, given how _delicious_ it feels to finally cut loose."

This was an outrage. A horrific, tormenting outrage. There was no pride or glory in needless, psychopathic bloodshed. No higher purpose to serve, no greater power to honour with its execution. It was what it was. Savagery.

But this was Astaire's Shadow, and his Shadow was him.

He couldn't really be thinking such a thing, could he? Surely not.

" _Astaire-kun…"_

Astaire's heart plummeted to his feet.

In a moment of silent horror, he turned around to see Rise floating behind him, a serene look on her face as the blood ran down her face.

" _It's okay, Astaire-kun. You're not to blame. There's nothing wrong with you. There's nothing…"_

It was like a switch had been flicked. In an instant, Rise became aware of the the situation she was in and began wailing like a banshee, thrashing at the bubbling blood uselessly as she began floating further downstream. "Ms. Kuji-!" Blood filled Astaire's mouth, gagging him and scalding his tongue all over again. As his head dipped under the surface, some untapped power threw him back up in desperation. _"RISE! I'LL TRY TO-!"_

Only when Astaire held out his arms did he realise they ended at the elbows. The smell of sickening, burnt, melting flesh filled his nostrils as the taste of iron washed around in his mouth from the blood. Even without fingers, it felt as though the pain were still there.

Something was happening to Rise, and given what had just happened to him…

Astaire's Shadow knelt down and violently grabbed his human counterpart's hair, forcing him to look up. "Don't shy away from it. This is your passion. You want this."

Astaire might have been crying. Through all the blood, it was impossible to tell, but he had to be. He could do nothing else. The only thing worse than drowning in a river of boiling blood, was knowing that Rise was feeling the exact same thing. The only thing worse than that was knowing that there wasn't a single thing he could do about it. His Shadow's fingers in his hair, he couldn't help but look on in abject horror and sadness as Rise spasmed and flailed helplessly. Gradually, there was less and less of her to flail. After far too long, there was nothing.

" _This is your purpose. This is your desire."_ His Shadow said above him. _"This is what you live for. Drink it in, and embrace it."_

Astaire felt his Shadow's shoe on the back of his head. There was nothing he could do to resist. Slowly but surely, the crimson river of wrath began to swallow him whole.

His final thoughts were of Rise before the blistering blood gouged into his eyes.

All that was red turned to black.


	14. But Not For Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A rude awakening, a pair of interrogations, and memories of time gone by.

Of the many lessons that frequent excursions into the TV World had taught Rise, one rung true even now. There was no better way to start the morning after than with a healthy dose of home cooking.

The only issue was that said lesson was learned in Inaba. With her Grandmother's cooking, not hers. But darn it all, there was a time and a place for everything, and Rise's mind was made up. Time to get good at cooking!

"Okay, this one looks good!" Rise thought to herself as she expanded the recipe on her phone. " _Basically scrambled eggs but made with tofu…_ No problem! I can do that!" And so she set about her work in her miniscule kitchen, assembling both her array of ingredients and myriad tools with which to manipulate them.

Fifteen minutes later and nothing was on fire yet, hooray! However, there _was_ one teensie, tiny little snag. "Cumin and chilli powder… Cumin and chilli powder…" Rise chanted to herself as she scanned through all the labels in front of her. After triple checking, she tilted her head and sighed. "Darn, no cumin. Guess I'll just have to improvise!" She bubbled back up, reaching for her worryingly long rack of spices.

Wait a minute, there was another problem. "How can a hotel room not have a single teaspoon?!" Rise grumbled to herself, stepping out and going so far as to look through all the drawers surrounding her bed, stepping lightly and biting her lip so as not to rouse Astaire from his slumber against the wall. "You know what? I don't even need a stupid teaspoon! I can eyeball it, sure I can!" She said with an affirmative nod, going back to her culinary concoction.

Wait yet another minute, there was yet another problem. Upon closer inspection, the recipe called for mild chilli powder. Everything on Rise's countertop was hotter than the blazes of hell and damnation. A fact she only realised as she screwed the top off the first bottle. "Seriously? What kind of recipe uses _mild_ chilli powder? Where's the excitement? The pizzaz? _The passion?!"_ Rise crooned overdramatically, forgetting that her passion was the reason she'd almost lost her tongue a few days prior.

Like a bomb disposal expert holding pliers between a set of wires, Rise hung over the skillet with both bottles in hand. She licked her lips as a single drop of sweat ran down her head. She would need precision. Skill. Determination. With no tools to dispatch, everything was on her. Slowly, the mouth of each bottle descended. Steady. _Steady, Steaaaaady…_

Rise jumped as a guttural, horrific, lung-emptying scream erupted from the bedroom without warning.

Astaire.

Without a moment to spare, she threw open the door and bounded in. "Astaire-kun, what's wrong?! Did something…" She stopped midway as she realised Astaire was curled up into a ball, facing the floor. His breaths shook in time with his body as he shivered uncontrollably, hands clutching the sides of his head. "...happen?" Rise finished. Not that the answer wasn't already obvious.

She knelt down next to him, weighing up what might have happened. A bad dream, perhaps? It was possible, but what would've been bad enough to make him…?

Wait _._ He'd mentioned before that his Shadow spoke to him in his dreams. The day before, his Shadow had taken over his body. Surely the two had to be connected. Whatever the case, it didn't change the fact that Astaire was curled into a quivering ball on her floor, nor did it change that she needed to do something.

Her mind went back to when she was younger. When she'd stayed over and had nightmares at her Grandmother's house. Yeah, that would work.

Slowly but surely, Rise reached out and gently stroked the back of Astaire's head. At her touch, she could have sworn that his breathing eased a bit, and that his shaking had become less violent. "Ssssh. It's alright, don't worry. It was just a bad dream." She hushed with a gentle smile, just as her Grandmother had done.

Seconds passed before Astaire moved properly. His hands loosened around his head, allowing him to slowly look up to meet Rise eye-to-eye. The two stared at each other for a beat, and Rise opened her mouth to provide some manner of comforting follow up. All that stopped her was Astaire lunging forward and throwing his arms around her, hugging her as tightly as he dared.

"Oh wow." His grip was ironclad, his heartbeat prominent and rapid. Judging from how his back felt when she carefully wrapped her arms around it, he'd been sweating buckets, too. Not to mention he'd _straight up hugged her of his own volition._ "That bad, huh?" She asked gently, giving him a squeeze. His head buried in her shoulder, Astaire nodded.

It was coming. Rise just knew it. It was only a matter of time. She counted off the seconds in her head as Astaire's grip loosened and his heartbeat returned to normal. Roughly a minute had passed, and then- _"BWAH!"_ Astaire flew from her grip like a cat from water, scrambling backwards on all fours and looking positively _mortified._ "F-Forgive me! I didn't mean to act so-!"

"It's alright, really!" Rise assured him, both hands outstretched. "I mean, I know _I'd_ want someone to hold if _I_ had a really bad dream too, don't worry about it!"

"I… I thought…" Astaire pressed his back against the wall, bringing one hand to his head and drawing his knees in closer. "...I had to watch, and then… and then I thought I'd lost you, so I…" He tried and failed to recount fully, the mere act of recalling the dream bringing a grief-stricken look to his face.

"Stop. Don't push yourself to remember, okay? You don't have to tell me what happened if you don't want to." Rise assured him again, hobbling over to his side on her knees. Whatever context _losing her_ had, it didn't seem wise, or fair, to pry. Astaire seemed to agree, opting to remain silent as he ran his hands through his hair and sighed. "...We need to deal with your Shadow as soon as possible. The sooner you stop bottling it up, the better." She added.

A brief look of horror flashed across Astaire's face before his expression fell again. "...I understand." He said defeatedly, head lowering.

Before he could wallow any further, Rise tapped a knee and gave him a dainty smile. "C'mon, it won't be that bad. I'll help you out and everything." Oh no. "We could start later today! I have a break in the middle of the day, so we could try then!" _Oh Gods no._ "Hey, remember what I said last night. Your Shadow is you, but you're not your Shadow. Whatever you end up admitting to, I'll still be there. And so will everyone else, too."

Her words would have been reassuring, had Astaire not suspected he'd need to admit to _something_ involving her during the proceedings. He gulped as a tight knot tangled his throat, following up with a nod. Like it or not, his Shadow needed dealing with. Whatever would be, would be.

"Great!" Rise cheered as she hopped to her feet. "But before we do any of that, we're going to need the energy to get there first! And as luck would have it, I just happen to be-"

Hold the phone.

Sniff, sniff.

" _OH, SHOOT, THE FOOD!"_ Rise screeched, sprinting back into the kitchen.

* * *

"Mmmm! Phenomenal!" Astaire couldn't resist smiling as he worked his way through a double portion of breakfast. It was so good that he was even taking his time, if only because she sheer flavour was enough for him to obsess over every bite. "Are you certain you don't want some, Ms. Kujikawa? Surely it's only right to partake in the fruits of your labour."

Rise quickly tapped in a reminder on her phone - ' _Buy teaspoons. Don't try adding spice when Astaire-kun is sleeping.' -_ before looking up. "No, no, I'm fine, thanks! Just make sure and eat it while it's hot!" She beamed as best a hungry idol could while watching someone eat food in front of her, plopping her head back down onto the bed's sole pillow.

Every bite he took made her toes curl a little tighter. She swore the air was distorting around his chopsticks as they went from his plate to his mouth. How could someone conceivably eat that much concentrated spice and _still_ not feel anything? Spice was good, no doubt about it, but there had to be lines drawn somewhere, and Astaire was striding over them without a care in the world.

A sudden buzz from her phone grabbed Rise's attention. It was a text message. From 'xSenpai~!x'. She made another mental note to change the name some time before she flicked her phone open.

" _Are you wearing anything right now?"_

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden?" Astaire asked, raising an eyebrow towards the bed as Rise rapidly assaulted her phone, furiously tapping out a message with a reddened face and fumes all but blasting from her ears.

" _Okay, good."_ Came Yu's surprisingly composed reply after the venomous tirade he'd been sent.

Astaire's attention was once again drawn as Rise let out some manner of exasperated growl and slammed her phone into the bed. She aggressively crossed her arms and began glaring holes in the wall. "What does he think he's doing, asking me something like that?! He already has Yukiko-senpai, doesn't h-"

"Sorry, that probably wasn't the best way to word it." Yu apologised flatly.

" _GOOD GODS ABOVE!"_ Astaire bellowed, reflexively bringing his foot back as Yu's head appeared from within the TV.

Then his arm appeared too, shielding his face. "Woah, hey, wait a minute! Astaire-san, it's me!" Yu insisted, eyes fixated on the pointed ends of Astaire's shoes.

Thankfully, he failed to suffer the same fate as Teddie as Astaire calmed down and lowered his foot, shortly before Rise crawled over to the end of her bed to confirm what was happening. "Eh? Senpai, you're here?" She began before sharpening her gaze. "...What were you thinking with that text, huh?"

"Sure, I _could've_ just barged in, but I think you and Astaire-san might've reacted… poorly." He said, eyeing up Astaire and lingering on his shoes.

In light of his explanation, Rise's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I guess you've got a point… Just find a better way of telling me from now on!" She finished, pointing at Yu's disembodied head. "And come out of the TV already, you're giving me creeps just looking at you!"

Yu shook his head. "Sorry, no can do. I wasn't planning on sticking around. Astaire-san." At his word, Astaire straightened his back. "You're coming with me to Inaba."

"What?"

"Huh?" Astaire and Rise replied in unison. "When was this decided?" Rise asked, looking between the two of them.

"Since we could barely hurt regular old enemies with our strongest weapons, that's when. You mentioned something about 'titanite' making our gear more effective, right? Do you have some in that box of yours?" Yu asked, motioning to Astaire's chest.

"I certainly do. There's only one hiccup." Astaire raised a hand behind his head and glance off sideways. "I… can't actually make use of it like this. I'd either need a bonfire or a blacksmith, and I doubt you-"

"Perfect." Yu interrupted him, extending a hand from beyond the screen. "The guys should be waiting for us at Junes, we shouldn't keep them waiting."

His unperturbed manner threw Astaire for a loop. Either prerequisite sounded pretty hard to come by, but Yu had hardly blinked at the thought, now outstretching his hand and urging him to follow.

Yet something served to pause Astaire. His eyes wandered to Rise, who watched the conversation with some mixture of intrigue and… something else on her face. "...Is something the matter, Ms. Kujikawa?"

Whatever else had been simmering alongside her curiosity, it shot off Rise's face in an instant. "N-No, no! Go right ahead, by all means! Senpai wouldn't have come all this way if it wasn't important, right?" She asked, nodding at Yu.

Rise was a good actress. Undoubtedly so. But something was sticking out, even to Astaire. "Will you be alright at the studio by yourself?"

"Yeah, totally!" She nodded again. But something was still there, visible but inexpressible to Astaire's untrained eye.

Was it worry? Upon thinking of it, Astaire couldn't help but think so. Between the previous day's tirade about Kaoru being a creep and the Dark Spirit attack the day before, she'd have plenty of reason to worry.

As would he, given his absence.

"Hold out your hand, please." Rise raised an eyebrow at Astaire's request, but decided to play along. One quick coat-search later, he placed something cold and angular in the palm of her hand. A thick piece of what seemed to be white stone, with cloth wrapped around the top "White Soapstone." Astaire elaborated. "If something should happen in my absence, and you feel you need my assistance…" He knelt down and ran his finger across the carpet. "...simply write my name on the floor and touch it. Do that, and I'll appear at a moment's notice."

Rise examined the soapstone as she ran it over in her hands. Write his name and touch it, and he'd just appear? It sounded nonsensical. Impossible.

But something about it put a calm smile on her face. "Thanks, Astaire-kun. I'll keep it close by." If Astaire said it would work, chances were that it would, however impossible it sounded. That alone was enough to give her comfort.

A nod was shared between them, and with a grasp of Yu's hand - after putting his glasses on first - Astaire and Rise parted ways.

* * *

Yu Narukami was an odd sort. He exuded a strangely comforting air, the sort that made Astaire feel like he could tell him anything. Less comforting was the other sensation he gave off: Pressure. So sheer and persuasive that Astaire not only felt like he _could_ tell him anything, but that he was likely going to, whether he wanted to or not.

"Wow, that sounds rough." Yu said, eyebrows raised. "Your dreams usually that bad?"

"I've yet to have a good one, if that says much." Astaire lamented, pushing his glasses up his nose. Given how closely Yu had been watching him since they'd entered the TV, it didn't seem wise to let them drift too far off. "That was the worst, though. By far."

Yu rubbed his chin as he weaved between both monster corpses and trees, giving the former a wide berth. "It only seems right to think yesterday played a part in that." He paused to sling his sword over his shoulder, keeping close watch on Astaire as they walked. "...Alright, I've decided."

"Decided what?"

"Tell me everything your Shadow's bugging you about. All the stuff you can't accept."

Astaire stumbled as he tripped over a monster corpse, expression stricken. "What?! You can't be serious! You faced it head-on when first we met, what more could I tell you?!"

"People change, Astaire-san. It's not a stretch to think Shadows would be the same. If yours is talking to you in your sleep, and it _is_ changing, none of us can help if you don't tell us what it's doing." Yu sidled up closer to Astaire, giving him a serious look. "Come on, tell me."

The closer Yu got, the more the pressure mounted, to the point where Astaire found himself veering away into the trees to lessen it. A choice he quickly regretted as he tripped over a wayward monster tendril and almost went headlong into a bush.

Clearly vying away from it wasn't going to be an option. Yu's razor-sharp eyes still bored holes in the side of his head. "Alright, alright, I submit." Conceded Astaire, proceeding to rack his brain for details. "...Deriving pleasure from my… _lesser deeds_. That's the first." Yu nodded, "Then… denouncing the Lords. That was the second."

"That doesn't sound so bad. Those Lords of yours don't exist in our world, surely denouncing them couldn't matter _that_ much."

" _IT MATTERS TO ME!"_ Astaire roared, instantly rounding on Yu with fire in his eyes. Fire which he was quick to exhale out when he noticed Yu's free hand move to his sword. "...Sorry. It's just…" Astaire ran a hand through his hair and looked up into the leafy canopy. "...Lord Gwyn constructed our world. Took it from the Ancient Dragons and made it fit for Lords and humans alike to live in. They have given us more than anyone could ever hope to repay, but that doesn't mean I shan't try."

"Okay, okay, got it." Yu relaxed his stance and eased off. Take it easy. Baby steps. There was no use in pissing off Astaire's Shadow _and_ Astaire himself. "What about after you came to this world? In your dreams and such?"

"Nothing." Astaire replied all too quickly.

_Oh Gods be damned, he'd done it again._

"...Huh. You're sure about that, are you?" The weight in the atmosphere increased tenfold as Yu glared daggers at Astaire's side. "This isn't going to get better with time, Astaire-san, especially if you're going to keep secrets from us." The second 'us' passed his lips, Yu had an idea. "I'll ask Rise if I have to."

Again, Astaire rounded on him. "I haven't told her either! Leave her out of it!"

And there it was. Yu grinned to himself. "Oh? So there _is_ something to tell, is there?"

The fury in Astaire's eyes was quickly snuffed out as his expression sunk. _Uh oh._

"Something you haven't told Rise, even though you're so close… Hmm." Thoughtful hums passed over Yu's hand as he tapped his chin. "Could it be, then, that it's something _about_ her?"

"Damn it all, yes! Yes, it's something about her! Are you satisfied now?!" The admission echoed around the forest, around the bushes, trees and corpses as Astaire threw his arms out to the sides. He waited for a follow-up question, for some other intrusive prodding which he knew fine rightly he'd have to answer. The pressure wouldn't subside until he did.

Then the pressure seemed to subside. Sans follow-up questions. Instead, Yu looked him up and down, studying his haggard appearance with analytical precision. When at last he returned to looking him in the eyes, he replied. "Alright." Replied, and resumed walking afterwards.

Astaire blinked in disbelief. "'Alright'? What do you mean 'Alright'?!" He asked as he jogged up to Yu's side anew.

"I mean it's alright. We've got what's worrying you, now we just need to work through it." Yu shrugged. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Astaire fidget and fumble, trying to work out how best to articulate his worries. "You wouldn't have told me about Rise being involved before now, right? And now that you've told me, you don't need to shy away from it. That sounds like progress to me." He paused, yet Astaire continued to look unsure. Thus, he continued. "You'll eventually need to tell me what's bothering you in more detail, Astaire-san, but you don't need to do it right now. We'll take the first step and call that good enough for now. Deal?" He finished, offering Astaire a handshake.

Yu Narukami was an odd sort. But he wasn't bad. He knew how to use that oppressive aura of his, but he knew when _not_ to use it, too. He'd pushed him, but only far enough. The thought swam around in Astaire's head, and only left once he met Yu's eyes above his outstretched arm. They were infinitely softer than they'd been before, reassuringly so. So reassuringly that a smile was inevitable.

"Deal." Astaire nodded as he returned Yu's handshake.

Yu returned his smile in kind before focusing on the path ahead. "Glad to hear it. Now, let's not keep the guys waiting much longer, shall we?" He said as he quickened his pace, with Astaire happily matching his stride beside.

_Social Link Rank UP!_

_Lust - Rank 1_

_Knight Astaire_

* * *

"Stop, stop, stop!" The coach hollered from the seating area as he waved at the sound and lighting crews, plunging the stage into relative silence. He raised a hand to his forehand and sighed exasperatedly. "Rise-chan, you can't go dancing that far back during your segment, the instruments are gonna be there."

For the third time that day, Rise stomped a high heel off the stage. "Well why aren't they here then?! I thought the whole point of this stupid rehearsal was to help plan stuff like that out!" She fumed, fighting the temptation to toss her microphone stand javelin-style in any given direction. Stupid rehearsal and stupid director and stupid dancing segment and stupid screw-ups and stupid…

The coach's expressionless face blinked as he put his hands behind his head, turning to holler at everyone else instead. "Break time, anyone? Sounds like a good time for break time." His colleagues next to him nodded in agreement, as did several of the stage crew off to the side. "Same goes for you girls, too. Go get your heads cleared, then come back and give it another go. We'll reconvene in thirty." He motioned to Rise and her backup dancers, the former of which stormed off without another word.

The coach raised an eyebrow at her as she disappeared backstage. Stomping and storming didn't seem very Risette-like. Even after a year out, she'd come back and performed like she'd never been away at all. Top that off with how frustrated she'd been getting and it was hard to say there _wasn't_ something wrong with her. All he could do was hope the next thirty minutes might ease it off her mind, however slightly.

Frappucinos weren't exactly diet material. Much less when they were so thick that they were two steps from being classed as 'liquid cake', but after the morning she'd had, Rise couldn't claim to be all that concerned. Dieting could wait a while, hazelnut and caramel were her two new best friends for the next twenty minutes as she strode towards her dressing room.

The routine was supposed to be easy. Well, easy _for her_ at least. Five screw ups in a row wasn't just frustrating, it was unheard of, not to mention annoyingly beyond explanation. What was she doing wrong? Everything was exactly the same as last time, and yet…

" _...I'm too low for zero, too tired to work..."_ Wait a minute. That singing from around the corner. _"...Tried one on with a friend last night, and wound up losing my shirt..."_ That tinny sound of western 80s music blaring from what sounded like a pair of headphones too loud to concern themselves with noise cancelling.

It couldn't have been anyone else. Rise quickly strutted around the corner and launched her free hand at the singer's shoulder before yelling, _"KANAMI!"_ Partially so she'd actually hear her and partially because _hoo boy. She had some explaining to do._

" _...I'm too low for z-_ EEEEEEEEEEEE!" Kanami screeched as she spun around on a heel, a cloud of curled hair and bowed ribbons. No sooner was her 180-degree spin complete, her face switched from stunned to overjoyed on the spot. "Oh, Rise-senpai! I was just about to come looking for you!"

"No kidding." Rise's face sat hard and flat, not even bothering to raise an eyebrow, or operate outside of a monotone response.

Not that monotone dissuaded Kanami at all. "Mmhmm! I was gonna come ask you where Astaire-kun was! After yesterday, I was gonna ask him if…" She trailed off, noticing that Rise was either on the verge of crushing the Frappucino in her hand or launching it. The eyebrow twitching gave it away. "...Oh, was I not supposed to bring that up?"

"It's more the day before I'm interested in, _Kanami-chan."_ Rise said menacingly, stepping forward like a predator cornering its prey. "Astaire-kun andme _both_ almost got in a whole heap of trouble because of you! What part of dancing with him seemed like a good idea?! And right after the news went and made a big deal out of us, too! What did you think was gonna happen?!"

In spite of her Senpai looking like a twin-tailed monster from Hell itself, Kanami stood firm. "You mean you didn't _know?!_ " She gasped, eyes wide as her jaw hung open. "Someone who doesn't know what kind of music or dancing they like?! I _had_ to do something! I just _had_ to!" She insisted innocently, eyes aglimmer.

He knew what kind of music he _didn't_ like, that was for sure.

Wait, no, that was beside the point. Focus, Rise, focus! "You couldn't have done it some other way?! Some way that, oh, I dunno, _doesn't_ involve getting all touchy-feely with him?!" She continued, hands moving to her hips as she leaned forward, eyes narrowed.

But something about her clicked something inside Kanami. Rise could see it on her face. Despite looking, sounding and _feeling_ outright incensed with her junior, and making little attempt to hide it, something stood out. Something that made her smile widely and half-close her eyes. "Aww! Rise-senpai…" Kanami began, her grin widening mischievously. "...You're not _jealous,_ are you?"

"J-Jealous?! Me?!" Rise immediately flustered, leaning back and trying to regain her composure as it quickly flew the coop. She brushed some stray hair aside and cleared her throat, slapping her angry face back on again. "I'm not jealous, I'm annoyed! You almost got us in big trouble!"

Kanami's response was to put a finger to her chin and gaze off at the ceiling, smiling all the while. "Y'see I heard from _somebody_ \- not saying who - that you maybe, just a teensie-tiny little itty-bitty bit, might've had a crush on him." At that, Rise's blood ran colder than the ice in her Frappucino. "But I thought _'Nah, no way!'_ and didn't really listen to them much. Then there were rumours going around that you two had run off to _Inaba,_ of all places!"

Oh, _crap._

"So then I started thinking, 'Inaba's pretty far away', right? It almost looked like you were going out of your way to try and not get noticed by anybody!" She laughed innocently. "Then I considered that maybe that _certain someone_ might be onto something! Just a little bit, though."

This was bad. This was _really, really bad._ Rise's foot tapped ever more quickly off the floor as she folded her arms and glanced off at one of the walls. "I-I don't have a crush on him, _or_ anyone else! Not that it's any of your business."

Ever so innocently, Kanami smiled and cocked her head to the side. "Maybe not, but I was curious anyway! I wanted to be sure that my beloved Rise-senpai was falling for the right guy, after all! So I decided to go check him out and see what he was like for myself!"

"I'm _not_ falling for him." RIse grumbled.

Her grumbling ceased as Kanami let out a… _sigh._ A sigh which didn't rub Rise the right way at all, much less so when she saw she was cupping her cheeks with either hand. " _Haah…_ That's good, then."

"What? Why?" Rise unfolded her arms and took a step closer to Kanami, setting her drink on a nearby stack of chairs. Her expression had shifted from indignance to utmost curiosity, so quickly that it was impossible to hide her concern. "Is there something wrong with him?"

Still cupping her cheeks, Kanami shook her head. "No, no, silly! Nothing like that! It's just… I just…" It was only when she paused and looked about fit to burst that Rise noticed her immense blushing. "I think I have a crush on him too, for real! Kyaa~!"

_What._

Yet Kanami's gleeful squealing continued. "I can't hide it any longer! I wasn't being totally honest with you earlier, I _did_ want to see him, but it wasn't about what happened yesterday!" She balled up her fists and held them to her chest, the Kanamin Beam turning up to eleven as her eyes lit up the corridor. "I wanted to go over and confess my love to him! Today!"

" _No, you can't!"_

It just slipped out. Before she knew it, Rise had said it before even _wanting_ to say it. Before even thinking about it. Yet she'd said it all the same. She'd even clenched her eyes shut and balled her fists at her side, so serious was she.

"Heehee. Gotcha." Kanami giggled. Her expression couldn't have been more different from before. No blushing, no coy motions and no cheek cupping. She instead stuck out her tongue and winked, putting her hands behind her back. A complete tonal shift. "I thought that might work. Sorry, Rise-senpai~!"

She didn't want Kanami confessing to Astaire. No, she didn't want _anyone_ confessing to Astaire. And she'd all but admitted it.

RIse fixed her gaze on a fascinating spot on the floor as she felt the heat rush to her face. "D-Don't act like you know everything! It's just… confessing to him would just make things awkward, is all! It'd make working together really, really awkward!" She insisted, trying to hide the wavering in her voice and failing miserably. For all her acting talents, Kanami had all but laid her bare.

"Awkward?" Kanami tilted her head again. "I don't think it'd be awkward at all. Oh! Unless you think he'd reject me, is that it?" She asked, clapping her hands together and tilting the opposite way. "You seem pretty sure, Rise-senpai. But… what if you're wrong?"

It was impossible to tell, but Rise swore she could feel her face pale a few shades.

"Say I _were_ to confess to him, and he even looked like he was falling for me. What would you do?" Kanami leaned in, smiling playfully and lowering her voice to a whisper. "Would _that_ make you tell him how you feel?"

Instantly, without another word, Rise whipped around and quickly began storming back to the stage, ears red - from embarrassment or rage, Kanami couldn't tell - as she stomped away.

For once, Kanami's persistently cheery smile faded. Watching her Senpai turn her back on her was the final nail in the coffin. As good as she was at hiding it, even she had her limits. Her eyes turned to Rise's frappe, still sat upon the stack of chairs and far from being empty.

"...There's nothing wrong with being honest, Senpai. With him _or_ yourself." She said quietly.

* * *

For whatever reason, the walk towards the shopping district had proven to be remarkably obtuse. "I can probably guess the answer, but I'll ask again. Where are we actually _going,_ here?" Astaire quizzed his walking partners, eyes flitting between them.

"You'll see." Yu answered, much in the same way he'd answered the last two times.

"Don't look at me, I ain't tellin' ya." Kanji shrugged.

"Honestly, Stairry-kun! Haven't you ever heard of a surprise before?" Teddie asked as he bobbed along in his suit.

Much as he'd expected, Yosuke didn't say much on the matter. Not that Astaire could blame him. Even still, the sheer amount of non-answers was beginning to wear on him. Everyone else had mainly talked amongst themselves on the walk from Junes, and quickly resumed doing so after he'd asked his question, almost as though they were trying to block him out.

Which was rude for many reasons, but especially because he was laden with the entire Investigation Team's arsenal in his box. If they wanted their gear upgraded, the least they could do was tell him _how._

Then the scenery began to seem somewhat familiar. Certain streets and buildings which he could vaguely remember from the past few days. Which was odd, seeing as he hadn't seen that much of Inaba to begin with. So where had he-?

"Oh! Well, I'll be!" A familiar, elderly voice spoke out from somewhere to Astaire's right, beyond Kanji. He turned to meet the smiling, well-wrinkled face of Rise's grandmother as she swept at the front of Marukyu Tofu. "If it isn't Dojima-san's boy! I thought you'd gone and left us all a while back!" She said cheerfully, leaning on her broom's handle.

Yu chuckled and shrugged. "Guess I'm just hard to get rid of, that's all." He said casually, hoping he wouldn't have to explain _how_ exactly he'd travelled as far as he had.

Luckily, Rise's Grandmother found her attention turned to his entourage instead. "And you're with all your friends, too! How delightful!" She smiled wholeheartedly. "It's a shame you weren't here yesterday, my Rise-chan just decided to show up out of the blue! Her and that new bodyguard of…" She trailed off, stopping to adjust her glasses and focus on the head that peeked over Kanji's shoulder. "Ah! It seems you've already met!"

On cue, Astaire stepped out from behind Kanji and scratched the back of his head. "We, uh, certainly have! Good day to you, Ma'am!"

Kanji was quick to step in afterwards. "I-It's his day off, see? So we were gonna head on over to Daidara-san's to, uh…" Oh, crap, right, she didn't know they'd been sneaking out weapons for the TV World every other day. What were they _all_ going to Daidara's for, then?

"Armour! We were gonna get him some armour! Y'know, for looking after Rise-chan!" Yosuke offered, appearing in front of Kanji and Astaire as he shoved them both to the side.

The tension in the air was palpable as Rise's Grandmother hummed thoughtfully, gaze lingering on each of the boys, who bristled in turn as they felt her time-tempered eyes scan over them. After a few seconds, her face softened as she smiled again. "Ah, I see. Well, if it'll keep my Rise-chan safe, don't let me keep you! Stay out of trouble, now!" She said cheerfully, waving the boys goodbye as they quickly ushered one another to the neighbouring building.

Yu heard the first question coming before Astaire had even asked it. "Daidara? Who might that be?"

Well, the surprise had only been _partially_ ruined. Unable to shy away from it any longer, Yu stepped up and held a hand to the closed doors. "You know the way you said you needed either a bonfire or a blacksmith to make titanite useful?" Yu asked, pushing the door open before he got an answer.

Instantly, a waft of desperately hot air billowed out of the building, scented with the smell of ash and sparks and instantly slicking Astaire's forehead with sweat. Then he heard it. The sweet, sonorous sound that gave his heart wings, that lifted his spirits to the highest possible reaches imaginable. The sound of a hammer off an anvil.

But it didn't stop there. Stepping inside, Astaire's neck twisted to and fro as he gasped in amazement. Weapons and armour of every kind, all in pristine condition and packed in so tightly that the walls behind them might as well have not been there. It was a warrior's more heavenly dream, and he was stood right in the middle of it. "Good gods in heaven above…" Astaire murmured as he took it all in.

Then, a noise. Or rather, a noise dulling down from one corner of the shop. "It's about time you lot showed up. With keeping that door closed, I'm absolutely drenched!" A deep, gruff voice bellowed over the noise of the furnace as its owner stopped to wipe his face dry of sweat. A man with red hair and a large X-shaped scar below his balding head.

"Sorry Daidara-san, we were-" Yu began, only to be interrupted as something large, blue and _very_ excited dashed by him,

"You're Mr. Daidara?!" Astaire asked enthusiastically, fists balled and his eyes rivalling Kanami's for sparkle intensity.

Daidara took a puff from his cigarette before answering. "That I am."

"And you're a Blacksmith?!" A pitch or so higher.

"That I also am."

"Have you ever worked with titanite before?!" A pitch higher again.

A thoughtful puff. "Can't say I have."

The tools on Daidara's countertop leapt up as Astaire's Bottomless Box slammed into the surface, under his ecstatic expression. _"Would you like to?!"_ Astaire's grin stretched from ear to ear, so wide that his eyes nearly closed over entirely. He quickly reached into the box and snatch up a small shard of Titanite, presenting it to Daidara's discerning eye.

It looked a bit like charcoal, if charcoal were made of ore. It also seemed a bit similar to granite, if not quite as pleasing to the eye. Daidara tapped the shard off the counter, Sounded tough. He snatched up a small eyeglass and looked at it more closely. Good structure. Stable. Real, _real_ stable. Finally, he bit into the small black clump, garnering odd looks from his audience, save for the really excited fellow in the coat.

"...This is good stuff." Daidara finally said. "I could work with this, yes. Depending on how much I have to work with, that is." He slid the shard back over the counter to Astaire. "Couldn't do much with that alone. You got any more?"

" _DO I?!"_ Astaire gripped the Bottomless Box, flicked it open and spun it around, interior facing the floor.

There was a deep rumbling sound, like that of an earthquake localised entirely within Astaire's box, before a veritable torrent of black rock came tumbling out of the box's mouth. Shards upon shards of titanite flowed like water from within, quickly forming into a sizable mound on the floor which showed no signs of getting much smaller. Then the sound of rock on rock changed, becoming less frequent but louder. Larger shards preceded massive chunks, the thickness of Yu's arm, if he had to eyeball it.

Finally, the tumbling ceased. The mound of titanite finally ceased its rumbling, the peak sitting around Astaire's chest. Daidara's mouth hung open, dropping his cigarette to the floor, as did the mouths of everyone who _wasn't_ Astaire. "That's… a lot of titanite." Kanji helpfully pointed out.

"You're tellin' me..." Daidara said as he reached for another cigarette, brow still high with awe.

"Wait, wait!" Astaire insisted, righting the box and delving his arm inside. "There's one more in here, I know it!"

Well, it wasn't like they could tell him _not_ to stick his arm in now. Yu shook his head as he pondered what possible explanation, if _any,_ would excuse them. His efforts weren't helped as Yosuke came up beside him. "I don't think one more piece is gonna make that much of a difference."

Words which were quickly eaten as Astaire retrieved his bounty with a might heave. A slab - a _slab -_ of titanite, came out of the box, landing atop the pile with an almighty THUMP. As thick as the pavement outside, and twice as heavy looking, the slab once again coaxed Daidara's new cigarette out of his mouth all over again.

"What could you do with this much?" Astaire asked earnestly, looking about ready to squeal with delight.

For the briefest of moments, Yu caught something in Daidara's eye. A sharp, excitable glint. Something neither cycle of the Investigation had _ever_ shown him. "Don't worry about the cost, either. I'll flip the bill for whatever Astaire-san orders." He added quickly, before Daidara could give his answer.

That was the spark that lit the fuse. Daidara gave a toothy grin to Astaire, who returned one twice as wide. Completely in sync, they turned to the rest of the team. "Leave us. This is going to take a while." They said in unison.

Without protest, Yu, Kanji, Teddie and Yosuke quickly scuttled out the door, the heat at their backs intensifying as Daidara and Astaire's work began.

"Well, that went about as well as I expected!" Yu happily announced, breathing in the comparatively cool air outside. "After this we'll be rolling through the TV World like it wasn't even there."

Yosuke raised an eyebrow and looked back at Daidara's place. "How long do you think 'a while' is gonna be?"

"I dunno, but I can't see it bein' quick." Kanji said as he stretched out in the afternoon sun. "If that's how it's gonna be, I'm gonna shoot on back to my place. Frickin' heat's getting worse, I swear."

He hadn't even turned fully before Teddie was at his side. "Oooh, I wanna come to your place too! Do you have any scarves that would go well with… Teddie Blue?!" He asked as he posed dramatically.

"It's June, Ted, the hell d'you even need a scarf for?" Kanji posited as the two nonetheless began walking for Tatsumi Textiles, squabbling back and forth all the while.

And then there were two. "Ah, crap. How are we supposed to know when he's done or not? The guy doesn't even have a phone!" Yosuke asked, watching Kanji and Teddie disappear up the street. "Hey, you think maybe we should-?" He turned to ask Yu, only to wind up asking his back front was preoccupied with… staring blankly at a featureless wall.

Oh, wait, right. He'd explained that before. Something about some door only he could see, leading to the Velvet Room. Got it.

Yosuke mumbled something at the ground as he kicked a stone across the street. Had to find something to do. Something to kill time. The only problem was that he'd no idea _how much_ time needed killing.

...Daidara couldn't wind up taking _that_ long, could he?

* * *

From the confines of her covers, Rise stared listlessly at the moon, her chin propped up by her hands.

Astaire still wasn't back, and Senpai wasn't answering her text messages. Something had to have happened. Something bad. Another Dark Spirit, maybe. Perhaps even something _worse_ than a Dark Spirit. Something which not even Astaire and Senpai could stop, not even together.

...Nah, no way. Anything that could defeat Astaire _and_ Senpai would've been making the evening news after destroying half of Inaba. She'd have heard about it if that were the case.

The thought reassured Rise only slightly, because it still meant that they were both nowhere to be seen. She rolled onto her back and spread her arms out for lack of anything else to do. Something about the hotel room at night felt kind of… empty, without Astaire around.

Kanami's words bubbled up to the surface of her thoughts, creasing her brow on instinct. _Jealous._ Pfft, as if. She didn't even have anything to be jealous of. What, dancing with Astaire? Big deal, so what? It didn't mean anything, not one single thing.

But her blood stirred with an unfamiliar heat. An iron vice gripped her heart and a gnawing feeling set in her gut as she replayed the events in her head. The photos, Kanami's little talk and her _stupid, cutesy little know-it-all attitude that…_

...Darn it. She _was_ jealous. Maybe just a little.

It'd have been all too easy to feign ignorance and ask herself _why_ she felt the way she did, had the answer not been easier still.

Rise rolled back onto her front, flicking her hair behind her shoulders and biting a lip in thought.

...Did she like Astaire? Like, _really_ like him?

Maybe.

Did she want to tell him if the answer was yes?

_Hell no._

' _...What if you're wrong? ...and he even looked like he was falling for me. What would you do?'_

No matter what way she tossed and turned, Kanami refused to get out of her head. The silence in her room was deafening, only serving to amplify her thoughts louder and louder as time went on. The only way to shut them up was to entertain them. To drown out Kanami's words with some of her own.

...Was Astaire liking Kanami _really_ that hard to believe? After all, if Rise herself had propositioned that they dance together, never mind holding her waist throughout, he'd probably have flipped out. Maybe he'd go and bang his head off whatever roomly accoutrements in the hotel he _hadn't_ smacked into yet. It'd have been like trying to ask a fish to go for a walk.

What did it say, then, that Kanami had somehow managed to do it? Either through goading or - godforbid - Astaire's own will, she'd done it all the same. No flipping out or furniture assault required. How? How had she eked Knight Astaire out of his shell in so little time?

... _Knight_ Astaire. Knight. He was _her_ knight, not Kanami's. Whatever eggshells he felt he was walking on when he was with her didn't apply. He didn't need to protect her. He didn't need to play it safe. He didn't have to worry so darn much.

The longer Rise pondered it, the better a fit they sounded.

Damn it. It was happening all over again.

Yu and Yukiko. Astaire and Kanami.

The former seemed perfect for one another. Both smart, both mature when it mattered and both able to lean on one another when the going got rough. The signs were all there. She'd just been too stubborn to acknowledge it. Stubborn enough to keep poking and prodding, to keep trying again and again even as the hope began to fade. As her hope dwindled away to nothing, something else had risen up to replace it. Guilt.

What they'd had wasn't hers to intrude upon. Their happiness wasn't hers to compromise. All her poking and prodding did was make Yukiko that much more wary of her. She never said it outwardly - far too polite for that, - but Rise could tell.

Her meddling was getting in the way of their happiness. And so she sat back and stopped meddling.

Perhaps sitting back was the right thing to do in _this_ situation too.

It couldn't hurt any worse than the last time.

Rise's morose thoughts were violently shunted away as something large and heavy thumped into her bed's footboard with an "Agh, Hell!", causing her to squeal and immediately recoil towards the other end of the bed.

Her body relaxed as she realised exactly who had _'Agh, Hell'_ 'd in the first place. "Astaire-kun?"

"Ms. Kujikawa!" Astaire sprung to his feet, fists balled in excitement and his face… completely covered by a knightly-looking helmet. "You wouldn't believe the things Master Daidara can do, he's magnificent!" Astaire said, his voice tinny as it rattled around the inside of his helmet. "Not only did he upgrade everyone's weapons dramatically, but he offered to tinker with my weapons and armour, too! Now even if I have these accursed glasses on-" He flicked up the front of his helmet's visor, revealing his joyful, glasses-bearing face behind it. "-I should surely be a force to be reckoned with! Nothing shall stand before our combined might now! _Hurrah!"_ He finished, fists pumped in the air.

In the awkward beat of silence that followed, Rise couldn't help but begin to laugh. Hopping out of the TV and rambling like a hyperactive five year old in a suit of armour was too funny to _not_ laugh at. She wiped a tear from one of her eyes as she watched Astaire chuckle sheepishly along with her. "So _that's_ what kept you so long! I was almost starting to worry a little!" She said between light giggles. "It's good that that's all it was, though. I'm glad to have you back in one piece." She beamed.

Instantly, Astaire's armour was replaced with his coat as he knelt down to the floor. "You concern is appreciated. I only wish Mr. Narukami felt the same. I think he had a small fit when Master Daidara handed him the bill!" He sniggered as he lay back and supported his head with his hands. "I can only hope it wasn't _too_ taxing, else it'd damper my plans of requesting some more _original_ works later on!"

A dismissive hand waved at Astaire from atop Rise's bed as she lay back and relaxed herself. "Senpai bought _all_ of our stuff last year, I'm sure he won't mind burning a new hole in his pocket this time!" She went to laugh, only to be interrupted halfway by a yawn. "Haaah… I think all my dancing today's finally catching up to me. I think I'm gonna nod off." She said drowsily, pulling her covers up to her chin.

"Ah. R-Right. Very well then. Goodnight, Ms. Kujikawa." Astaire eventually replied after a long pause.

Had the realm of unwaking not beckoned Rise as strongly as it did, she may have wondered what took him so long.

* * *

At 3AM, Rise awoke.

Well, perhaps _awoke_ was being a bit too generous, as it implied that she had been sleeping soundly in the first place.

It wasn't the earliest she'd ever woken up, because she'd peeked out at her clock reading 1:47AM earlier. She was stuck firmly in Limbo. Too drowsy to stay properly awake, yet not drowsy enough to legitimately doze off. All she could do was lie lethargically in her fabric cocoon, staring at the wall and listening to the sound of Astaire's gentle breathing as he-

From the floor beyond the footboard, something quickly jostled on the spot. It was over as quickly as it began, and ended with what sounded like a muffled _thump_ off the carpeted floor. "...Hey. Are you awake?" Rise whispered out of her covers.

"Thankfully, yes." Astaire whispered back, his head peeking around the footboard to meet hers. She stuck a hand out and motioned to him to crawl on up to the floor beside her, which he eventually did, however sluggishly.

"Good to know I'm not the only one having trouble getting back to sleep." Rise said, unwrapping her upper torso from the covers.

For a moment, it looked as though Astaire _had_ fallen asleep, until he thumped his head off the floor again. "It's not that I'm having trouble sleeping, I'm having more trouble with _not_ sleeping." He said with another thump. "After last night, I'd be a happier man if I never slept again."

"Oh darn, I almost forgot! Sorry…" Rise mumbled drowsily. "Still… you can't just go the rest of your life without sleeping." She added, conveniently leaving out that death by sleep deprivation might just make it possible.

"I can give it a bloody good try." Astaire mumbled back, thumping the back of his head again. "Actually, what's keeping _you_ awake, Ms. Kujikawa? Has your Shadow started bothering you as well?" He lolled his head lazily to the side and raised an eyebrow as well as a sleep deprived man could.

"...I dunno." Rise half-lied. It wasn't that she didn't know, moreso that she had a pretty good feeling what it _might_ have been. It started with a 'Kan' and ended with an 'ami.' A cocktail of uncertainty and bitterness seemed to well up anytime she thought about it. Looking at Astaire didn't exactly help matters either. So what would?

Then again, the cure for uncertainty _was_ answers, and answers were only gained one way.

"Say, Astaire-kun?" Rise gulped as a tightness took hold of her throat. "Do you… have anybody that you like?"

"Hm? Of course I do. I like you, Kanami, Kanji, Mr. Narukami…" Astaire began with so little hesitation that he couldn't possibly have understood what she'd _actually_ asked.

Stupid medieval-minded dummy, needing stuff spelled out for him… "No, not like that. I mean… y'know, anybody that you _like_ like. Like, a _whole lot."_

That did the trick. A look of realisation crossed Astaire's face. " _Oh._ W-Well, I… I suppose, uh…" He began fidgeting, running his hands through his hair. "That's… I don't think I could… I, er…"

"Okay, stop." _Of course_ it wasn't going to be that easy. Figures. "How about this: Did you ever feel that way about someone from _your_ world, huh?" It wouldn't answer whether or not he liked Kanami, but it might make him more willing to talk about it.

Asked that, Astaire calmed down. Explaining the past would be leagues easier than explaining the present. "Hmm. Let me think…" He murmured, stroking his chin. Someone from Lordran? Someone he'd felt _that way_ about? Was there such a person? "Yes. I think I did, once."

When he didn't follow up, Rise propped herself up on her side and leaned expectantly. "Well? Who was she? What was she like?"

Astaire pushed himself up and set his back to the bed, sensing those wouldn't be the only two questions. "Her name was Seiglinde of Catarina. Much like myself, she was a knight. Er, knight _ess,_ that is."

He stopped again. "C'mon, c'mon, tell me more! What did she look like?" Rise urged him on.

"She was… big. You know, round, like-" Astaire traced the outsides of his torso with his hands.

Rise wasn't quite sure what she'd expected, but it hadn't been _that._ "O-Oh, okay." Was… that Astaire's _type?_ Did it have anything to do with liking Kanami? After all, between herself and Kanami, the latter had way bigger-

"Well, I say that, but I never actually saw under her armour, so I can't say for certain." Astaire continued, raising an eyebrow at Rise's relieved sigh afterwards. "I happened to meet her during my travels. She was being held captive in the Duke's Archives…"

* * *

"It was you who rescued me? Why, thank you!"

The moment the armoured girl spoke, Astaire felt his undead heart skip a beat. Her voice was as radiant and warm as the sun itself. Unfortunately, it didn't make recovering from his fight with her captor all that much easier. Small shards of crystal fell off his iron-laden shoulders as he panted, decorating the grass below. "Think… nothing of it…" He said between breaths.

A gauntlet reached out to him as he doubled over, fingers splayed. "I am Sieglinde of Catarina."

His stamina quickly regaining, Astaire straightened his back and firmly clasped her hand. "Knight Astaire. It's a pleasure to meet you." He smiled under the folds of his hood.

"The pleasure's all mine!" Sieglinde insisted, waving her free hand in front of her face, the other being preoccupied with supporting her bastard sword. "I don't know _how_ I ended up in that crystal! It wasn't terrible in there, but I could hardly move…"

Astaire glanced down to the other end of the grassy field, taking note of the crystalline cavern that awaited him further on. "Seath the Scaleless' work, I'd imagine. You're not the first person I've had to rescue in this manner, I had to fend off one other such golem in the Darkroot Basin not too long ago."

"That far out? Goodness." Sieglinde reached around to her back and retrieved her Pierce Shield, filling her free hand. It was funny, actually. Sword aside, if she hadn't spoken Astaire guessed he'd likely have mistaken her for- "Oh! Have you seen my father?"

Aaah. That explained it. "A knight of Catarina? Armour and arms like yours, but wielding one of these instead?" Astaire motioned his head towards his Zweihander. He felt joy swell in him as Sieglinde seemed to perk up inside her armour. "Yes, as it happens! Last I saw him, I dropped him a few clumps of moss in Blighttown. Can't say I'm sure where he went afterwards, though…"

Sieglinde seemed far from perturbed at his lack of knowledge. "Thank Goodness! I knew he was here somewhere. Now I must find him. Thanks again, truly! For both helping myself _and_ my Father!" She said cheerily, walking off towards the Archives. "Farewell, Sir Astaire!"

Even under the onion-shaped helmet, her voice carried her smile. Astaire waved at her half-mindedly, suddenly feeling a come-down from the rush he'd just experienced.

Her voice was as an angel's. She wielded a greatsword, as he did. She was bold and brave enough to venture into Lordran all on her own.

Something twisted and knotted up Astaire's rotten stomach the more he thought about it. He shook his head and turned for the Crystal Cavern, hoping the venture might clear his mind.

* * *

"Ow. Ow. Ow."

"Please, do keep still! It's only going to get worse if you leave them in!" Sieglinde assured Astaire, plucking a large hunk of crystal out of his side. A small pile was beginning to form at her feet, glistening and reflecting the light of the sun as it shone upon Firelink Shrine. "There, this should be the last one. Brace yourself!"

" _ARGH, DA-"_ Astaire forced his fist into his mouth before he could say any more. The pain was bad, but it wasn't worth swearing in front of a lady, goodness no. As the pain slowly but surely faded, he hobbled over to the bonfire and refilled his Estus flask, two swigs stitching his side back together completely. " _Aaah,_ much better." Astaire sighed contentedly. "Thank you, Ms. Sieglinde."

"Oh, just Sieglinde is fine, thanks!" Sieglinde insisted, taking a seat next to her armaments beside the fire. "Would I be right in guessing that your delving into those caverns wasn't the smoothest venture?"

Astaire joined her, sitting next to his Zweihander as it sat planted in the ground. "You would be. Ruddy humiliating too, he's already killed me the once as is." He lamented, dipping his flask into the fire once again to replace the charges he'd used. "...And what of you, Sieglinde? How fares your own quest?" He asked, the lack of a 'Ms.' sounding awfully odd to his ear.

A sigh tinnily slunk out of Sieglinde's helmet. "Little better than yours, I'm afraid. I still can't find my Father anywhere. I looked over Blighttown from top to bottom, but there was no sign of him! Oh, if only he'd learn to stay put and keep out of trouble…" She slumped her back and shook her head. "At this rate, I'll never get to… What are you doing?"

Astaire stood and retrieved his sword from the ground before slinging it over his shoulder. "Seath can wait. I think I'll go and investigate Blighttown myself. Possibly beyond." He said, that heart-rending sigh of hers still echoing in his ears. There was no way any upstanding Warrior of Sunlight could stand by and watch someone so charming be so glum.

"You will?!" Sieglinde shook her helmet in disbelief. "Are you absolutely sure? I wouldn't want to offload my troubles onto you, or my Father's, for that matter!'

Astaire shrugged. "There's very little anyone could ask me to do that would be much trouble, believe me." He assured her. The flame from the bonfire licked at his fingers as he put out his hand, letting the heat run up his arm and spread to the rest of his body. "...Least of all, you." He said quietly as the fire engulfed him whole, sending him off to Quelaag's Domain.

* * *

" _The poor girl's not even Undead."_

Seigmeyer's words latched firmly onto Astaire's mind, replaying over and over again. Sieglinde was human. She wasn't afflicted with the curse.

A polished, hardly-used scimitar served as his mirror as he peeled back the folds of his hood. The light hit a patch of dry looking, shrivelled up skin before Astaire quickly folded them back again. Still Undead. Still looking Hollow.

It felt unfair. So torturously unfair. To be made to feel the way he felt, to meet someone so wonderful in so desolate and destitute a place, only to be told something like that. From the moment he'd left Siegmeyer to the moment he'd slain the Bed of Chaos afterward, his face sat more sunken and sullen than it usually did.

The first thing to cheer him up was Sieglinde. Which seemed especially odd, considering she was the root of his woes to begin with. She came up the steps from the New Londo elevator. Evidently, braving the Valley of the Drakes just to open one door had been worth it. "There you are! I was hoping you wouldn't have gone too far away."

He couldn't tell her. Never. The thought ate at Astaire from the inside out. And yet, "Sieglinde! I trust your Father was still in Lost Izalith when you got there?" That voice could never darken his spirits. It could've put the sun to shame without even trying.

"Thankfully, yes. He finally sat about long enough for me to actually catch up to him!" Sieglinde chuckled, and _good lord what a chuckle it was._ As much as Astaire tried to prevent it, his rotten, undead heart refused to calm itself.

Stop it. _Stop it._ "I really have no idea how I could even begin to repay all you've done. For my Father _and_ myself."

Astaire's heart calmed to the point where he felt able to afford a dismissive wave. "You needn't worry. I didn't do what I did because I was seeking repayment, it's quite alright."

A move he quickly regretted when Sieglinde tilted her head and replied with, "Oh? Whyever _did_ you go through all the trouble, then?" Astaire suddenly felt his innards wish to become outtards. "No normal person would go through all that effort for nothing, I'd think. Why, then?"

The answer was right there. It'd have been so quick. So simple. "Well, I'm the Chosen Undead, aren't I? Who else is a better fit for solving problems than I?" But it wasn't an answer he could give. "I-In any case, if you finally found your father, how shall you proceed from here?" Better to get off the topic and let it slide.

"I shall return to Catarina, I think. This land is far from hospitable, I think you'd agree!" Sieglinde said with one of _those_ laughs before calming down. "But… there is one more thing I must do first. I shan't feel right leaving without."

Astaire raised a hooded eyebrow. "Oh? Do tell."

For the first time since he'd met her, Sieglinde… fidgeted strangely. Hands fumbling with one another as she shuffled on the spot. "I… feel that I should follow my Father once more." The puzzled noise Astaire gave her in return urged her to continue. "H-He mentioned to me before I left! Something about his final mission! I don't know where he is, but… I fear he may have gone Hollow!"

A final mission? He hadn't mentioned anything of the sort when Astaire had spoke with him. He'd tried to sacrifice himself for his sake, then grumbled about something when he came to help. After that, he…

Oh no.

Immediately, Astaire was on his feet, sword in hand. "That bloody fool! He's trying to get himself killed!" Izalith. He'd have to backtrack out of Izalith, the head honcho was already dead. The Ceaseless Discharge was dead by Astaire's hand too, as was Quelaag. If he was after something big, it'd be something big. Somewhere Astaire hadn't been before.

"Ash Lake." Astaire said before he'd realised it. "He's going to Ash Lake." Never worrying about how or why he remembered the name of a place he'd never even been to, Astaire tossed his shield to his back and grabbed Sieglinde's wrist. "Come on, we have to hurry! We need to get to Ash Lake this instant!"

* * *

At last, the fight came to an end. Siegmeyer's body collapsed onto the shores of Ash Lake, accompanied by the heavy panting of Astaire and Sieglinde, both bereft of stamina and one of them devolving into light sobs. "Oh, Father… dear Father…" Her Bastard Sword dropped from her grip as _she_ dropped to her knees, next to her Father's body. "Well…" Sieglinde sniffed, "...at least… he'll stay out of trouble, now…"

What began as a sniffle became a full-on cry. Sieglinde's sobs echoed among the Archtrees and the water, rebounding all at once to compound on Astaire's heart.

Slowly, he held out a hand, aiming for her shoulder. He couldn't bear it. Though his armour was littered with bloody openings, courtesy of Seigmeyer's Zweihander, and though every single wound stung and seared more potently every second, Sieglinde's crying struck him harder than any blade could ever hope to. He had to do it. Had to comfort her somehow.

An inch away, Astaire stopped, fingers tensed into a fist.

Both parents dead, one of them by her hand. Stuck in some disparate land of undeath with nary a caring shoulder to cry upon. She was strong, no doubt, she wouldn't have made it as far otherwise.

But if she needed a shoulder to cry on, she deserved someone better. Someone from Catarina perhaps. Someone with a human-looking face. Someone who wouldn't eventually lose their minds and try to kill her, only to have the present situation replay all over again.

Someone who wasn't him.

Thus, Astaire drew back his hand. _"Let her go."_ He told himself. _"Let her go back to Catarina and let nothing stop her."_

Focus on something else. Something, _anything_ to take his mind off Sieglinde's crying. Astaire put his hand to his hips and gazed around at the scenery. Wide, towering Archtrees for miles, stretched across an endless sea. The one Archtree at the end of the smooth, untampered shore.

"...Hm." Astaire hummed to himself. "Curious."

Sieglinde, finally recovering from the sheer trauma of what she'd just been through, stood up to face Astaire head-on. "Whatever do you mean…?"

"Your Father. I believe he came here to fight something after I bested the Chaos Eaters in Lost Izalith with him. To sacrifice himself in a blaze of glory, so to speak." Astaire cast his eyes over the shore again, taking in the smoothness of the sands. "...But what was he here to fight? It doesn't _look_ like a struggle took place."

A tinny hum came from Sieglinde. "I… I suppose you're right. But he couldn't have come here for no reason! There must be something we-"

Sieglinde was abruptly interrupted as a shadow cast itself over her and Astaire. The sound of water thrashing behind them, combined with an ear-splitting roar, shook them both to their cores. They turned around, weapons raised to find... er...

* * *

"...What?! What was it?!" Rise asked, clutching her covers around her chest in anticipation.

For a moment, Astaire's face was blank. "I, er… don't quite recall."

Rise lunged forward from her sitting position onto all fours, her face inches from Astaire's. "What?! What do you mean you 'don't quite recall'?! You put me through an emotional rollercoaster like that and you don't remember the end?!"

"I don't, honestly! Whatever happened, all I remember is reawakening at Firelink Shrine afterwards!" Astaire insisted, backing away from Rise's face. "Without Sieglinde, too, I should add."

Rise relaxed and sat back, putting her head back on her pillow before she sighed. "So. Did you ever see her again?" Astaire shook his head. "Meaning… you never told her how you felt."

"It wouldn't have made a difference." Astaire shifted his back off the bed's side and lay back down on the floor. "No sane being could ever love an Undead. They'd only be inviting pain and anguish into their life further down the line. I could've told her, but I could guess what the answer might be."

Loving someone from a distance, only to give up on pursuing them to ensure their own happiness.

"...I think I know how you must've felt." Rise said quietly, looking Astaire in the eyes as he raised an eyebrow. "It's nothing, really. Just something from a long time ago, don't worry about it." She assured him, rolling onto her side and putting her back them.

She heard Astaire hum, then sigh as he too rolled over on the floor.

Internally, Rise's thoughts were abuzz. To tell him, or not to tell him? What would happen if she did? Would it make things awkward? Between him and her? Or between him and…?

"...Senpai." Rise finally chose to say, while at the same time refusing to turn around. "I had a crush on Senpai. That's why I know how you must've felt." He'd bore his previous' crush's details to _her,_ after all. It only seemed fair to return the favour. "Goodnight, Astaire-kun." She quickly added, bundling herself up in her covers.

Well at least _one_ of them was feeling up to the task of sleeping. Where Astaire had felt himself begin to reluctantly nod off, Rise's addendum immediately shook it off. She'd had a crush on Yu.

In hindsight, Astaire wasn't surprised. Yu was the leader. He was charismatic and mysterious, alongside being as handsome as he was. He was powerful and commanding, just as his Persona was. There were few women he could think of who _wouldn't_ find themselves drawn to such a type.

That's right. It wasn't a surprise at all. Such a charismatic sort was bound to attract that kind of adulation, it was only natural. Mmhmm.

...It didn't explain why the fact made Astaire feel as demoralised as he did, however. Nor the lingering sorrow lingering in the back of his head. Having never felt it before, giving the feeling a name was impossible. To anyone else, the symptoms made the cause all too clear.

Envy.

 

* * *

Hey, it's a two-fer for contextual music this time. One for the chapter name and one for Kanami's music. Yippee.

There are a few versions of 'But Not For Me', but I'm a fan of Chet Baker's buttery-smooth voice.

 


	15. In the Mood for a Melody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bad hair day, a duet, and another step into the unknown.

Morning came. Sleep didn't.

Having seen what horrors awaited in the sleeping realm, Astaire found staying well away from it all the easier. He dared to blink only every so often, as though the slightest lapse in concentration would result in him being swallowed whole once again. All he could do was lie flat on his back while staring at the ceiling, expression hard and taut.

Ironclad determination shared a bed with anxious anticipation as the temptation to nod off was matched only by Astaire's will not to. For hours he lay basking in the silence, only occasionally interrupted by the sound of Rise rolling around in bed above him.

After enough hours, his anxiety began to wane. The light of the sun began to pry away the darkness from the room, signalling that his efforts hadn't been for naught. For the first time in hours, Astaire let out a sigh of relief. He'd lasted the night successfully. He could do it. He felt terrible, but he _could_ do it.

As quietly as he dared, Astaire stood up and walked to the window. The sun had never looked so good. He raised his arms aloft and stood on his toes, a silent cry of _'Praise the sun!'_ echoing around in his head.

Then came the sound of shifting fabric from behind him. "Eurgh… who's there…?" As well as a sound which indicated he hadn't been quite as quiet as he'd have cared to be. Rise murmured and mumbled as she shifted around under her covers, slowly sitting herself upright.

Well, if she was awake, she was awake. "Good morning, Ms. Kujikawa." Astaire said, turning from the window. "Did you sleep well?"

Rise's frazzled bird's nest of hair quaked all at once as she froze mid-eye rub. One bleary eye widened in horror before she turned into a brown blur and shot back under her covers with a scream. " _Waaaah!_ Why the heck are you up so early?! Actually forget it, just don't look at me! Whatever you do, don't look at me!" Came her muffled protests from underneath.

Astaire tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "But… I _did_ look at you. Right this second."

"Well, don't! Just… Just hand me my bag, would you?! It's on one of the chairs by the table!" Rise managed to muffle out.

Still confused beyond belief, Astaire nonetheless complied and retrieved the small, pink handbag. The second it was within her reach, Rise's arm lunged out hungrily and ripped it from his grasp. She mumbled and cursed under her breath as she tried retrieving the contents under her stuffy, dark, claustrophobic blanket.

"...Might I ask _why_ I'm not supposed to look at you?" Astaire asked the struggling, cursing pile of fabric atop the bed.

"What are you, blind?! I'm a total mess, that's why! Gimme, like, ten minutes and _then_ you can look!" The fabric snapped back.

Astaire blinked, face blank. "I'm afraid I don't follow."

Rise growled in frustration under her covers before finally throwing them off her upper half, pointing a finger at her dishevelled, red, sweaty face. The closest she got to a form of makeup was the well-used brush that was stuck to her hair, having halted mid-motion. "What about now, huh?! Is _this_ any easier to understand?!"

She'd almost been expecting him to flinch. Or wince. Or react at all. Instead, Astaire simply stood there, silently eyeing her up and down with such prolonged intensity that her annoyance began to wear off. Her face remained red, albeit for a different reason.

Finally, an answer. "...No?"

Rise blinked, then pouted and folded her arms. "You don't mean that."

"Of course I do. I wouldn't be telling you if I thought otherwise." Astaire insisted, wondering how much clearer he could make his point.

Not clear enough for Rise, evidently. "So you're telling me that this-" She encircled her face with a finger. "-and all this-" Then ran a finger around the circumference of her bird's nest. "-looks perfectly alright to you."

"Yes."

"Even though I look like a zombie."

"Yes." Whatever a 'zombie' was.

"And even though my hair looks like a fish net."

"Yes."

"And even though I don't have any makeup on."

"You just look like _you_ , that's all!" Astaire finally barked.

For a moment, Rise was stunned. Did he mean it? _Really_ mean it? He could've been lying to make her feel better. Goodness knows he'd be the sort.

...If he were anywhere near a good enough actor to convince her. Or hadn't bluntly explained how he disliked her on-stage antics to her face.

As bewildering as such a notion seemed, Rise had to admit, he may well have been telling the truth. Her eyes fell to her lap. "But I… I don't look as nice as I normally do…" She said, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.

"Don't be absurd, you always look nice."

Astaire's hand clasped over his mouth in a vain attempt to catch his words before they left. His eyes went wide and the air let him as though it had been squeezed from his lungs. Gods above, he'd really said it. He couldn't take it back. Not that she _didn't_ look nice, she _did,_ but actually _saying_ it was… was…

Watching Rise seemed to slow time to an agonising crawl. She was still staring at him. Her face was still as red as when she'd appeared from under her covers, expression dumbfounded. Her finger had stopped twirling her hair. Her lips began to curl, possibly in revulsion. She closed her eyes, possibly unable to stand the sight of him. She smiled, possi-

Wait, she was smiling?

Indeed she was. A wide, genuine smile. "So it's _not_ just with my hair down, huh?" Rise asked with a giggle, lodging another kilogram of weight in Astaire's chest. "I dunno how many people would agree with you, but I guess it doesn't matter. You're the only guy that's seen me like this anyway, so…" She glanced off to the side, curling her hair again. "Thanks, Astaire-kun. Really." She beamed brightly.

Once the weight in his chest decided to stop performing backflips, Astaire pried his lips apart. "You're welcome." Was as far as he got before clamming up again.

Rise giggled happily to herself as she resumed brushing her hair with one hand, taking the opportunity to snatch up her phone with the other. News articles, emails from Inoue-san with scheduling details, a text from Senpai…

"Oh, shoot! Astaire-kun, I just got a text from Senpai! He said we're-" Rise's words caught in her mouth as she looked up to address Astaire directly.

He was clutching his head and staggering on the spot, moaning weakly to himself as he went.

_Uh oh._

Every colour in the room seemed to blur and brighten all at once. The white of Rise's bedside lampshade seemed to bleed into the walls and intensify to a blinding degree. Astaire squinted, only then realising how monstrously _heavy_ his eyes felt. In fact, his _whole body_ suddenly felt it too. Almost as though he'd slipped his glasses on without noticing.

The distant sound of Rise concernedly calling his name muffled into white noise. The floor looked so inviting. As though it had sprouted arms and was drawing Astaire in for a loving embrace. An embrace which, the longer he lingered, Astaire found his body craving in spite of his mind's protests.

But sleep deprivation proved to be remarkably persuasive.

Heavier and heavier Astaire grew until he could bear it no longer. He fell to his knees, his gaze fell to the floor, and his eyes fell shut. Not even Rise's questioning tone could stop him as he immediately drifted off. Hours were his limit. In the end, sleep was bound to win him over.

* * *

The sight wasn't there, but the feeling was. It was barely noticeable at first, nipping at the edges of Astaire's arms before gradually engulfing them whole. That boiling, mind-dulling heat from before. Slowly his skin began to give way, allowing the viscous, iron-scented deluge to reach inside, peel away the layers of muscle and sinew and sink mercilessly into-

* * *

" _GAH!"_ Astaire yelped as he sprung himself awake, bumping the back of his head off something solid and wooden. A moment of eye-darting and neck-twisting informed him that he'd awoken in the now-familiar surroundings of Studio 4, having bumped his head off the banister of the stairs. Rise was out on stage, discussing something with her coach instead of dancing.

Worryingly, Astaire couldn't remember her coming out, nor could he recall when exactly he'd nodded off. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes for the third time that morning and shook his head. Once before leaving was bad enough, twice during the car ride over was worse, but falling asleep _on the job?_ Unforgivable. Even if it only lasted around thirty seconds each time.

Without the sound of ear-splitting idol music to keep him awake, the next best thing was to think sobering thoughts. The TV World immediately came to mind. After his first thirty second lapse, Rise had awoken him with a text from Yu. Another venture inside. Another step up the ever-inclining hill that was Lordran. Even with everyone sufficiently kitted out and armed to the teeth, there was room for concern. Weapons alone weren't enough to conquer Lordran the first time. Twisted replica or no, the TV World was bound to be the same.

Then there was that horrifying monstrosity that he'd fought on the bridge. A drake that was immune to lightning. The shield from its tail mentioned something about it being ' _a deformed, augmented being constructed in the space between worlds'._ Did that mean there would be similar 'augmented', half-familiar monsters further inside? What manner of mutated, nightmarish fiends could be lying in wait for everyone to come-

"I can't watch out for instruments that aren't here, Coach-san!" Rise called out, loud enough to bring Astaire back to reality. "Why _aren't_ they here, anyway? Wasn't yesterday proof enough that we kinda _need_ them here?!" She continued barking.

It wasn't a full-on mouth-frothing rage like she'd flown into a few days prior, but Rise looked and sounded far from happy. "Jeez, something must really be getting to her." Someone said from behind Astaire.

" _CRIPES!"_ Astaire spun around and reflexively grasped for his missing Zweihander before realising who had seemingly materialised behind him. Namely, the only person in the entire studio liable to be listening to Finnish power metal on full blast through her headphones. Colloquially known as Kanami Mashita. "Where on earth did you come from?!"

Kanami tilted her head and shrugged. "Dressing room. I thought you'd have heard me on the way down, but I guess you were-"

" _Kanami-chan! Get out here!"_ Came the coach's thundurous cry from the stage proper. Swallowing and glancing at Astaire nervously, she peeked her head around into the spotlit stage. She opened her mouth to speak, but he had beaten her to the punch. "You're on your break right now, right? Not busy or anything, yeah?"

It didn't _sound_ like she was in trouble, at least. She motioned her head to Astaire, out of Coach-san's sight."I mean, I was talking to Astaire-kun just now, so-"

"Great, you can bring him along too." Rise shot Coach-san an unfriendly glare which he was lucky to avoid noticing. "Go back there and see where those jokers are with our instruments! We're gonna need them sooner or later anyway!" He said, waving Kanami back to the side of the stage before he turned his attention to the crew members seated next to him.

Well, if it was instruments he wanted, it was instruments he'd get. Kanami shrugged to herself, gave Rise a wink and sauntered back to Astaire, gripping him tightly by the coat as she walked by. "Welp, you heard Coach-san! Come on and help me find this stuff!"

"N-Now hold on a minute, I never agreed to this!" Astaire protested, nonetheless allowing himself to be dragged off. "I need to stay here and keep watch, remember? What if someone-?"

"Oh, don't be silly! Nobody's gonna want to sneak through _here_ after what you did to the last few guys that tried! Quit trying to be a spoilsport and come with me!" Kanami insisted, tugging him behind her even more strongly than before.

* * *

Following behind a girl who _wasn't_ Rise felt incredibly strange. Despite being close on the tail of Kanami's green-hooded head, it felt much closer to being alone than Astaire cared to admit. Sideways glances from crew members felt all the more sinister, and shadowed spots seemed all the darker. Before long, Astaire found himself sifting through his Bottomless Box for something to replace his Zweihander should things turn dire.

On the opposite end of the scale from her pale, wary-looking companion was Kanami, bobbing along without a care in the world. "It's the darndest thing! Rise-senpai never messes up that badly, never! There _has_ to be something on her mind! There just _has_ to!"

Given how enthralling a thought entering the TV again was… "I suspect I can relate to her." Astaire nodded, setting a hand on the grip of _something_ as he walked. Whatever it was, it was calming to the touch. "She _did_ sound awfully upset about not having… whatever it is we're getting. Perhaps that's all it is."

Kanami shook her head. "Nuh-uh, not a chance! In the past, even when bigger problems came along, Rise-senpai always gave one-hundred-and-ten percent! Whatever's eating at her, it's _big,_ I can feel it." She said with an air of certainty. Before long, she was guessing out loud at what could have been such a large issue, unaware that her sole listener had ceased listening.

Partially, anyway. It wasn't that Astaire wasn't listening, more that he wasn't listening _to her._ Because something else lingered just within earshot. Something which automatically drew Astaire's attention, no matter what else was present at the time.

"Wuh-?! Hey, Astaire-kun, wait up!" Kanami quickened her pace as Astaire overtook her with long strides, singlemindedly pushing past whoever stood in his way and leaving Kanami to apologise in his wake. "You don't know where all our instruments are kept, do you? Unless-!" Kanami brought a hand to her mouth and gasped. "Astaire-kun, are you psychic?!"

Her question went unanswered as Astaire barreled around a corner amidst heckles and derisive comments. None of them mattered. The noise was close by. So close that Astaire could feel it.

A glimmer out of the corner of his eye gave it away. Astaire whipped around on the spot before brandishing the Claymore he'd taken hold of in his coat. There, situated in the open doorway to his right, stood the source of the noise, looking up at him like a tiny, shimmering deer in headlights.

A Crystal Lizard.

Crashing sounds and a final, pained squeak greeted Kanami as she bolted through the door after Astaire, the distance between them only having lengthened over time. Large, splintered gashes in the floor formed a path which led to Astaire's back, wide and panting. "Is… everything alright?" Kanami asked carefully. Her eyes met with the shimmering carcass on the floor. "And w-what the heck is _that?!"_

Astaire drew his Claymore from the lizard's back. "Something that shouldn't be here, I suspect." He said grimly.

* * *

Rise tapped her foot off the stage and drummed her fingers off the microphone in its stand. Still no instruments. Not that it should have mattered in the first place, she should've had this routine down pat yesterday. But she still didn't. For reasons so nebulous that she could only aimlessly guess at best.

Going inside the TV was worrying, obviously. Astaire fading in and out of consciousness was cause for concern too. Put the two together and it made for a full can of Uneasy Soup. Even still, she knew both weren't the reason her mind was elsewhere.

" _Senpai. I had a crush on Senpai."_

Actually saying it out loud had only helped bring the thought to the forefront of Rise's mind. Which was bad for a number of reasons, not least because she strongly suspected the word 'had' was being a tad generous.

Yes, it was stupid. No, it wasn't right. It went entirely against everything Rise wanted. But she felt it regardless. Feelings, like Shadows, were hard to be rid of completely, she found. No matter how deep down she tried to stomp them.

Which led Rise to her sordid conclusion. Feelings were hard to be rid of, indeed. Moving them about? Shifting targets, so to speak, whether she intended it or not? That sounded _far_ simpler. Worryingly so.

After all, Yu was brave. Polite. Willing to face anything to protect that which he loved.

Not too dissimilarly to Astaire, when viewed from a certain angle.

The switch would have been all too easy.

Her dial was still turned to "maybe" on how she felt about Astaire. It wasn't as simple as just clinging to his arm and teasing him every now and then. When push came to shove, it was a big decision to make. But it was _her_ decision, darn it. She had to like him because he was _him,_ not because he was as close to Yu as she could get. It had to be him, not some shadow of someone else.

Rise shook her head to clear her thoughts. Forget the problem, it wasn't going to help her. What she needed was a solution. A game plan. Something to help her reassure herself inside. Something like- "Ms. Kujikawa? A word, please?"

Rise blinked at the sound of Astaire's voice, immediately turning to face him and _hooooooly crap what the heck was he doing._

In Astaire's left arm was a keyboard, the legs folded up underneath the body. Bordering alongside it was Kanami with a guitar in its stand. That was pretty normal.

What was less normal was _the person-sized amplifier Astaire was carrying over his right shoulder._ "Here you go, Coach-san!" Kanami chirped as she set the guitar down, putting her hands on her hips after. "That should just about do it for instruments, I think! I wasn't sure about the amp, so I just had Astaire-kun bring it anyway!"

Coach-san only half-listened to Kanami as she spoke, joining Rise and several of the crew members in gawking at the fellow carrying an amp - one that usually needed to be trollied around - like it was an inflatable replica. "G-Good thinking, Kanami-chan, perfect. Just, uh… set it at the back, I guess." He said half-mindedly.

With a nod and a not-inconsiderable amount of manhandling, Astaire complied and set the amplifier in place under Rise's watchful, amazed eye. Then it clicked.

Differences. That's what she needed. To make note of the differences between Yu and Astaire. If she did that, the scale would eventually have to tip one way or the other. Either she'd remain attracted to the parts of Yu that Astaire retained, or she'd continue having the dial set at 'maybe', differences and all.

With an assured nod and the instruments placed where they needed to be, Rise turned back to her microphone with a smile.

Difference #1 was easy. Senpai couldn't lift an amplifier like that, even if he tried.

* * *

"No way! One of those little shiny, glimmery things from the TV? In _here?_ " Rise whispered as loud as she dared.

Astaire nodded as he leaned over the keyboard behind her. "Evidently so. Do you suppose it followed us out after we left, perhaps?"

"And walked all the way here without being seen? Fat chance." Rise stroked her chin and gazed down at the stage floor. "First that Dark Spirit thing, and now this… I dunno what's happening, Astaire-kun, but I don't like it."

"That makes two of us, then." Astaire nodded.

A loud clap brought both their attentions to the audience. Giving his usual hand signals, Coach-san counted down the time until the music started up again. On his cue, Rise's singing and dancing resumed, as did her co-stars beside her.

If the music was grating enough from offstage, being in the forefront was even worse. Astaire grit his teeth and steeled his resolve, but the vibrations shook him through to his core. Drowning it out entirely was impossible.

Especially with someone yelling in his ear over all the noise. "Sounds way better up close, doesn't it?!" Kanami shouted, cupping her hands to make herself audible.

Oh sod it, his ears were going to ring no matter what he did. Astaire conceded his immense concentration and turned to her. "That's certainly one word for it!" He yelled back. "As much as I appreciate your coach's offer to let me sit in like this, I THINK IT'S GOING TO DEAFEN ME!" He yelled louder as the music ramped up.

"DON'T WORRY, YOU'LL BE FINE! IT'S WORTH SEEING RISE-SENPAI FROM UP CLOSE, RIGHT?!" Kanami yelled, shutting her eyes in effort.

"I SEE HER UP CLOSE MORE OFTEN THAN NOT! WHY SHOULD THIS BE ANY…" Astaire trailed off as he set his gaze on Rise proper.

True, seeing Rise up close wasn't special, at least for him. Seeing her _dancing_ up close, however, was a different matter entirely. The subtle adjustments to her footwork as she moved around the stage. The perfect synchronisation between her and her backup dancers. The smooth, water-like flow of her movements performed with a simultaneous energy and grace.

Apparently, a change in viewing angle made all the differences. "ACTUALLY, YOU MIGHT BE ON TO SOMETHING!" Astaire yelled back to Kanami. Right before the music abruptly cut out and plunged the stage into silence. "I THINK HER DANCING'S STARTING TO GROW ON ME!" He yelled, too late to stop himself.

As his voice echoed around the studio, Astaire felt his face turn beetroot red. Not least because of the way Rise turned around to face him, clutching her microphone to her chest. "...Really?" She asked hopefully, her whole face beaming brightly.

Words failed him, so Astaire settled for a stiff nod instead. Rise seemed to bristle happily before she turned to Coach-san, ready to find out why the music had stopped.

By his side, Kanami giggled before leaning in and whispering in Astaire's ear. "You have no idea how happy that'll make her." She said with a nudge in his side.

However happy it made her, Astaire found himself smiling solely from the thought of it. That smile of hers remained as infectious as ever. He sighed and leaned forward to put his elbows on the keyboard, only for the keys to sound out at his touch and send him recoiling upright again.

It looked just like the keyboard in Junes. Sounded like it, too.

Hmm.

Slowly, Astaire gently set his fingers to the keys and brushed them along the surface. Maybe he could do it again, even if he wasn't sure how he did it the first time.

"Oh, do you play?" Kanami asked, shattering Astaire's concentration completely as she leaned in over his shoulder.

Astaire's fingers abstained from the keys. "Er, sort of. I remember how to play from memory, but I can't quite recall what it _is_ that I'm playi-" He was cut short as Kanami sharply gasped and sent her eyebrows aloft.

"Astaire-kun." Kanami's eyes were aglow as she leaned in closer to his face.

Oh Gods, that couldn't be good. "Yes?"

"Do you know who you're talking to right now?" She leaned in closer.

Astaire backed off in turn. "M-Ms. Mashita?"

"Close." Kanami practically took up more of Astaire's stool than he did. "You're talking to _me._ There isn't a single song, tune, album, artist, medley, arrangement, remix, composition or compilation under the sun which I don't know." She growled, eyes brimming with fire. Their faces were so close that Astaire hesitated to breathe. Less than an inch sat between both of their noses as Kanami stared intensely into his soul, all but lying on top of him as she did.

Between Rise's face in Aiya and Kanami's on stage, Astaire could reach only one conclusion.

Girls were _terrifying._

"What are you waiting for? C'mon, c'mon, play something!" Kanami insisted, snapping upright and giving Astaire his personal space back. "Betcha can't play something I don't know, though~!" She sing-songed.

After being subjected to her latent demonic powers and peering into the gates of Hell itself, Astaire didn't feel inclined to deny her. He quickly straightened himself on his stool and ran his fingers across the keys again. They twitched subtly in certain positions, and settled into a formation which felt oddly familiar and comfortable.

Letting the unseen parts of his mind guide him, Astaire's hands began to work their magic, just as Kanami began working hers.

Fast-paced. Ragtime. Peaked in popularity during and shortly after the end of the 1800's, so it was liable to be old. Western. American, specifically. Think, _think._ It wasn't a Joplin, nor a Lamb or a Scott. Out went the big three. Three less people to consider, three less careers to cover.

Between thoughts and possibilities, Rise and her dancers turned on the spot, greeted by a wide-eyed Astaire and a closed-eyed Kanami, pressing a finger to her forehead as she thought. "Holy cow. He goes any faster and his BPM's gonna have four digits." The dancer on the right commented.

Beyond pressing her finger to her head, Kanami began to tap a foot. Then she bobbed her head. At last, as a smile began to form on her face, she sung: _"'Round the barnyard goes the mighty cavalcade, gorgeously arrayed, see them on parade! All the animals assemble there, as the break of day draws near!"_

It matched. Her singing matched the tune perfectly. Astaire couldn't help but stop in surprise. "Gods above, did you actually figure it out?! Just from that?!"

"King Chanticleer. Composed in 1911 by Nathaniel Davis Ayer. Born in 1887. Died in 1952, aged 64 in Bath, Somerset, England." Kanami rhymed off monotonously.

All eyes were on Kanami, and every single pair was silent, shocked and awed.

The dancer to Rise's left leaned in and whispered to her. "Is… Is she some kind of robot or something?"

"Give me another. You can play more than one song, right Astaire-kun?" Kanami asked, looming over Astaire once again with a thin, menacing grin on her face. "It's one-nil to me. Think you can get even one point?"

Closer and closer she leaned, with each inch serving to irk Rise a little more. She crossed her arms and tapped a foot, hitting boiling point when Kanami's ample chest came dangerously close to Astaire's shoulder. "Alright, alright, give him a break, would you? Not everyone's as much of a music freak as you are!" She burst out, beginning her stride towards the keyboard.

"Actually, I too wish to carry on, if that'd be acceptable." Astaire jutted in, stopping Rise in her tracks. "This method may well be the best I have of determining what I can and can't play. Who knows what I might learn from it?" He said earnestly, hands overlapping on the keys.

A fist clenched and relaxed at Rise's side. Darn it, he was right. Annoyingly so. But of all people, why did it have to be _her?_ "...Fine, go ahead." She said, turning on a heel and ushering her dancers back to their places, giving the floor a dirty look as she went.

* * *

Difference #2: Astaire worked wonders with a piano.

Try as she might, it was impossible to ignore. The sound of Astaire's playing and Kanami's accompaniment behind Rise's back was ever-present, like the hum of a fluorescent light in an otherwise empty room. When her own background music wasn't playing, the sound of ragtime filled the air. That was, for the first few times, at least. "No Hay Problema, by Art Blakey? No way, you're a Jazz pianist as well, Astaire-kun?!" Kanami enthused during one particular break.

Every so often, Rise would steal glances behind her. Between each, Astaire's grin seemed to grow wider and wider, as did Kanami's.

She'd always been good at her little musical guessing game. So good that she could nail down any song that'd been out for longer than an hour, no matter how obscure. Being asked to identify pop songs from any decade was a cinch. A bore, even.

Being asked to identify songs pre-dating electronic accompaniment, however? All through the medium of a single superhumanly strong, amnesiac knight on a keyboard he'd never touched before?

To say it was an event full of 'firsts' didn't do it justice. No wonder she looked so happy.

They both looked happy.

The jealous sting from the day before spread venom throughout her body.

Again, Rise's backing track died down. Just in time for her to catch a request from Kanami. "Hey, give me your hand a second!" A request which froze her heart solid, wrenching her around on the spot and ignoring whatever demands Coach-san was making. "Huh, so that's why."

There Kanami sat, one hand on Astaire's wrist. The other splayed out across his own extended palm, like a modern-day Tarzan. It would take the slightest tensing of muscles to have them be holding hands entirely.

And there it was, the straw that broke the camel's back. "W-W-What do you two think you're doing?!" Rise asked, striding over with her hands on her hips. "I get that you're enjoying yourselves, but-! But-!"

"Rise-senpai, lookie here!" Kanami beckoned her over with her free hand, completely unfazed. "Astaire-kun's got pianist hands!" She announced happily.

In a flash, frustration got replaced with confusion. Rise tilted her head quizzically as words failed her.

Kanami and Astaire angled their hands, _both_ unfazed as they showed Rise what Kanami meant. Their hands were indeed touching, Tarzan-and-Jane style, with one notable difference. Besides one being bigger than the other, Astaire's thumb outstretched _much_ further than Kanami's, approaching a one-hundred degree angle in relation to his index finger.

"According to Ms. Mashita, those with hands like mine can reach further across the keys all at once." Astaire explained, retrieving his hand and flexing his fingers. "It wouldn't change much in a fight, though. Probably why I haven't noticed up until now." He said with a chuckle.

"Oh. Huh." That sounded… harmless enough, even to Rise. Interesting, too. The sort of interesting that Naoto might want to know about. Rise made a mental note to text her later and inform-

"What's the matter, Senpai? You sounded so wound up just a second ago." Kanami asked, cutting Rise's mental note off halfway. She lowered her eyebrows and carefully, _deliberately_ made eye contact as she inched her hand closer to Astaire's, like the slyest, most cunning of five-legged spiders.

Nuh uh, not again. Kanami may have been laying the bait, but she sure as heck wasn't biting a second time. Rise turned up her nose as she turned on her heel and began walking off. Whatever stupid little game she was playing, she could play it on her own. Or with Astaire. Wait, crap, no, that was a bad thing. But she couldn't show it, that was just what she wanted. But if she didn't…

Before her internal argument could spiral out of control and take up the next hour of her time, Rise's ears perked up attentively as Astaire began playing again.

"Hah, simple!" Kanami boasted, puffing her chest out proudly. "It's-"

" _By the Light of the Silvery Moon!"_

Rise bolted in with timing only fit for a western gunslinger, outstretching her finger and beating Kanami to the punch before the words had even left her larynx. Her shocked expression quickly melted away as it morphed into a smile. "Wow, Rise-senpai! You remembered!" Kanami said happily.

Pridefully nodding her head, Rise stopped upon noticing Astaire's confused expression. "There's a musical with that name, too. I wound up watching it backstage with Kanami a while back." She coughed into a fist and turned away, mumbling, "After she dragged me all the way there during lunch…"

"I _do_ hope dragging others off isn't becoming a habit of yours." Astaire said over his shoulder.

His head reeled back as Kanami nigh dove over his shoulder to protest. "But it's _so good!_ It doesn't matter how old or foreign or subtitled a musical is, it's-!"

"-Just as magical and timeless as it always was. I think Astaire-kun's the only person you _haven't_ told already." Rise finished for her. As she shared her gaze between the duo before her, and mulled over the song they'd been about to play, an idea hit. "Say, Astaire-kun…" She began coyly, arms behind her back. "You said my dancing was growing on you, right?" As though an ice cube had been dropped down his collar, Astaire bolted upright and gave another stiff, silent nod. "What about my singing then, huh?"

Astaire glanced off to the side and bit his bottom lip. "It's, er... "

"That's a no, then. No biggie." Without awaiting a response, Rise strode over and picked up her microphone stand, ignoring the glares from her very impatient-looking backup singers as she walked back. "Oh, _Kanami-chan~?_ You're always game for a duet, aren't you?" She asked sweetly, putting enough emphasis on Kanami's name to encourage Astaire to shift uncomfortably in his seat.

If a threat had been hidden amongst her words, "You _bet_ I am!" Kanami was entirely blind to it, skipping over to the microphone with stars in her eyes. "As long as you are, that is! Think you can remember the lyrics? It _has_ been a while since we watched the movie…" She said with a wink.

"Silly Kanami-chan! I _never_ forget my lines!" Rise said, her emphasis again making Astaire's skin crawl. From the looks of it, he could've sworn her knuckles went white from gripping the stand that much tighter, too. "Ready when you are, Astaire-kun!" She called over, fixing her gaze solidly on Kanami's shortly after.

For the briefest of moments, Astaire considered asking _why_ exactly she was doing what she was doing. Upon witnessing the sheer, fiery intensity between her and Kanami's gazes, hot enough to where the microphone should have long melted, he decided to hold his tongue for a while.

He stretched a cracking sound out of his fingers before setting them to the keys.

A-One, a-two, a-one two three four...

* * *

Over time, the reactions of everyone seated in and around the stage began to shift. Impatient glares slowly softened and began taking genuine interest, including the particularly nasty one Coach-san had worn for a good while. As Rise and Kanami delved further into the song, each putting their heart and soul into outdoing the other, their audience of listeners gradually grew.

" _...Your silvery beams will bring love's dreams, we'll be cuddling soon~! By the silvery moon!"_

" _...Your silvery beams will bring love's dreams, we'll be cuddling soon~! By the silvery moon!"_

With a final flourish on the piano, both girls drew the song to a close. As soon as silence lay, it was quickly filled with a small, yet loud round of applause. Rise's backup singers, the tech crew around the stage, even Coach-san looked pleased. "Marvellous, marvellous! That right there's why you two are two of the best!" He hollered.

Given that they'd both been focused on each other so intensely, Rise and Kanami failed to notice how much attention they'd garnered throughout their performance. They each beamed and bowed to their listeners, soaking up the electric atmosphere all too readily.

As fun as it had turned out, it left Rise with only one question on her mind. _What had he thought of it?_

"That big lug of yours ain't too shabby on the keys, either! Give him my regards next time you see him, would ya?" Coach-san called up from below.

Rise tilted her head in confusion. "What? Next time I see him? Why wouldn't you just…?" She asked as she turned to the piano behind her, ready to compliment Astaire on his playing when-

_THUD._

The stool Astaire had been seated upon hit ungraciously off the floor and rolled to and fro on its side, devoid of a sitter, knight or otherwise. Rise blinked and rubbed her eyes, confirming that _yes indeed Astaire had seemingly disappeared on a breeze without so much as a trace._ But to where? Better yet, why?

Maybe he'd spotted another Crystal Lizard out of the corner of his eye. Maybe he'd just _really_ need to use the bathroom. Whatever the case, he was still gone. Rise began walking off to find him, when- "Hey, Rise-chan, where're you going? We've still got rehearsing to do, don't you try ducking out after keeping us up this long!" -Coach-san swiftly brought her back to reality.

...Well, if he _had_ run off, for whatever reason had possessed him, he couldn't have gone far. Settling on the 'bathroom' explanation, Rise turned on a heel back to her position, watching Kanami disappear backstage as she went.

* * *

Astaire sprinted up the stage-right staircase and thudded against the wall as he quickly threw his back at it. His eyes almost bulged out of his head, his throat felt tight, he felt slick with sweat and _good Gods above his chest._ His fingers locked around the severe, heavy ache in his chest, almost as though trying to claw it out entirely to make the aching stop.

Gasping for air post-sprint didn't help. It wasn't the run that pained him, not by a long shot. It felt like a dagger was lodged in his heart and a whip coiled around his neck. Given his rosy-faced appearance, an outside observer might've asked what exactly was wrong with him.

"Jeez, what's wrong with you?" Kanami asked, the sound of tinny Brazilian Bossa Nova music from her headphones announcing her arrival. Then again, judging from how she held her eyes half-closed and looked on the verge of doing a whole lot of eyebrow-shaking, she looked to be making a fair go at guessing.

The tightness in Astaire's throat forbade him from speaking clearly, as much as he tried. It'd have been all too easy to feign ignorance, to pretend he hadn't the foggiest notion as to what had gotten him in such a mess.

But the answer stood out more brightly than the sun in the sky.

Rise's voice was _phenomenal beyond compare._ Without equal. Without even _hope_ of an equal. A choir of maidens could only hope to breach the water cast out from the sheer tidal wave that was her singing. It may have just been the one song, and it may only have been a few verses, but it was enough to slug Astaire harder than Brave Blade could ever hope to.

Feeling such a way was one thing. Explaining it to Kanami was another.

Breathe. _Breathe._ Calm yourself. Such a rampant lack of composure was horrifically unknightworthy. With enough internal chanting, Astaire found himself gradually coming down from… whatever the correct term was for _that._ He propped himself off the wall and met Kanami's increasingly intent, anticipatory gaze.

At least, the high wore off. And off. And off.

_Uh oh._

Where once Astaire's scales had tipped in one direction, they passed by levelling out and began to tip the other way. He felt his limbs turn to lead, his vision become bleary and his head begin to swim. It was happening again. He was being beckoned towards the other side.

The abrupt shift in demeanour was enough to even catch Kanami off guard. "Woah, that doesn't look good! Hold on, I'll go grab a stool, or a chair, or something!" She began as Astaire teetered lazily from foot to foot, waving from side to side on the spot.

Her intentions were good, even if they wouldn't make a difference. Astaire felt his consciousness slip away like sand between his fingers. His weight shifted, the floor approached, and with a final, singular thud, he was gone.

* * *

Searing. All around, searing. Hot. Too hot to even imagine. Dark. Darker than the pitchest night.

" _How optimistic of you."_ A voice said amongst the waves of pain. _"Thinking it's worth holding out this long. You're only setting yourself up for disappointment, you know. That's always the way of things."_

From the darkness, a pair of golden eyes manifested. _"To live is to suffer. To set yourself up for loss, failure and pain, time and time again."_

In an instant, two eyes became thousands.

" _But you'll find out, in time. You always do."_

* * *

Astaire jolted himself awake, straining his eyes against both the sunlight and the sudden pain in his knees. The sound of wood-off-kneecaps and drinks-off-table served as a fairly noticable indicator that he'd once again regained lucidity. "Woah, hey, take it easy! Almost sent my frickin' soda flying." Kanji grumbled.

Wait, Kanji?

"Told you that was gonna happen. I'm surprised the table's still in one piece." Chie added.

Wait, Chie?

"I guess you weren't joking about your dreams being rough, Astaire-san." Yu said in turn.

Wait, Mr. Narukami?

Twisting and gawking around himself, Astaire was met with parasol-shaded tables, people eating (or staring warily at him,) and a full congregation of the Investigation Team seated around him. Colloquially known as 'The Junes food court'. "What on-?" He began to say, quickly scoping around himself until he found Rise sitting across and down the table. "When exactly did we get here? And _how,_ for that matter?"

Everyone bar Astaire shared concerned glances. "See? He's been doing this all day." Rise said, bringing out her phone. "This makes the… fifth time today."

Wait, that didn't sound right. Once in Rise's room, twice in the car, once at the studio, then… where was the fifth time? As much as Astaire tried, he couldn't- " _Agh, Gods!_ What are you doing?!" In between thoughts, Naoto had made a move from beside Astaire and shone some kind of miniscule, cylindrical lantern in his eyes. He recoiled on instinct, bumping into Teddie on his other side as the stars settled in his eye.

"Hmm. Dark circles under the eyes, pale skin, vacant expression-"

"Vacant?!" Astaire fumed.

Naoto carried on regardless. "Indicative of early Sleep Deprivation. Evidently, Astaire-san has been foregoing sleeping." She concluded, scribbling in her notebook attentively.

If Astaire was anywhere close to nodding off again, Rise banging her hands off the table quickly absolved the issue."So _that's_ why you were awake so early! You didn't wake up because you didn't sleep in the first place!" Only after her initial spark of frustrated concern flared up did Rise seem to catch herself on, her face softening. "...I know it's bad, Astaire-kun, but you're only going to make things worse by doing that."

For a moment, Astaire's eyes were drawn to Yosuke, anticipating a response of some kind.

"Maybe we should hook him up with some meds or something. The medicine counter inside sells stuff that'd knock you right out." Yosuke suggested casually, choosing to ignore the incredulous expression on Astaire's face. "What do you think, Partner?"

Yu pondered for a moment, his mouth hidden behind his clasped hands. "I think before anything, we'd better make sure nothing funny happens inside the TV. Teddie." He rolled a few coins over to Teddie, who scooped them up easily despite the shape of his paws. "Go get something that'll keep him awake. I'll need to run over the plan one more time."

Teddie gave a quick salute. "Leave it to me, Sensei!" And with that, he zipped off inside Junes like a streak of red and blue lightning.

Seeing as Astaire could seemingly fade off at the drop of a hat, Yu wasted no time in beginning. "After last time, Astaire-san, we decided to come up with a… game plan, of sorts. What happened last time can't happen again."

"Nor do I want it to." Astaire said with a shake of his head.

Naoto picked up where Yu left off. "All the same, we believe your past knowledge of your world, even as it is portrayed in the TV, will prove beneficial. It may even be instrumental to our success." She flicked back through her notebook, eyes scanning for one particular page. "Of course, there are… precautions, as well."

The obvious response from Astaire was cut off as Teddie reappeared as quickly as he'd left, jabbing something tall and red in his face without warning. "Here you go, Stairry-kun! One Topsicle, right out of the cooler!" He announced proudly.

Astaire's gaze briefly flitted between the Topsicle and Teddie as he tried to ascertain what the hell it was at a glance. After failing, "Many thanks, Teddie." he accepted it regardless, turning back to Naoto as he tore the transparent wrapper off. "Precautions, you said? Of what kind?"

At that, Yu tagged back in. "First off, you _can_ be on the frontlines, beside me and two others. If there's something you can shed light on that comes from your world, you'll join us in combat. Between the both of us, we should be able to…" Yu gradually trailed off, giving Astaire an odd look. "Are you… feeling alright?"

" _Perfectly."_ Astaire replied through gritted teeth, clenching a fist on the table and forcing one eye closed. _"Please, continue."_ He said, tightening his death grip on the Topsicle's stick, so tightly that it was a wonder it wasn't already raining splinters.

"...Alright then." Yu cleared his throat and gave a shrug, returning to the game plan. "Like I said, you can fight alongside us. _However._ " He added sharply, "The moment we find something you _don't_ recognise, or something seems out of the ordinary to _all_ of us, you'll swap out with one of the others and support Rise on recon. We can't risk having another run like last time. Is that clear?"

Every part of Astaire's body seemed to clench and cringe at once as he screwed his face up. _"C-C-Crystal."_ He jittered through clacking teeth.

Wait, clacking teeth? In late June?

From Yu's side, Yukiko stifled a giggle. "Snrk… That's what you get for eating Topsicles too quickly!"

"T-T-Too q-quickly?! I only t-took the one l-lick!" Astaire jittered further, clutching his head in perceived pain and clenching his eyes shut. Liquid fire in a bottle was a trifle. Rise's cooking was a meal eaten on easy street. But flavoured, frozen juice on a stick was where Astaire had to draw the line. He tossed the rest of the Topsicle into a nearby trash can, ignoring Teddie's protests next to him. "I think I'll stick with Ms. Kujikawa's cooking when I should need something to keep me going, thank you."

When Astaire opened his eyes again, the entire table, excluding Rise, was staring at him like he'd just admitted to strangling kittens on the weekends. Rise had instead taken to cupping her reddened face as a result. After all, _her cooking was better than Topsicles!_

Difference #3: Senpai could only pretend to like her cooking. Astaire didn't need to.

"...You're frickin' _weird,_ dude." Kanji summed up accurately.

Before Astaire could follow up on the look he gave Kanji for implying there was anything _strange_ with Rise's cooking, Yukiko clapped her hands together loudly. "Okay! That's everyone filled in and accounted for! We should get going before it gets much later!" She announced, already out of her seat and dragging Yu along with her.

Hastily chugging their respective drinks and awkwardly maneuvering out from below the table, the rest of the Investigation Team followed suit, slipping on their glasses as they went.

It was time for Round 2 with TV-Lordran.

* * *

"Well there's a shock." Yu commented sarcastically, gazing up at the new addition to the Statue Grove. Specifically, a likeness of Astaire and Daidara, one holding a sword to an anvil and the other hammering it into shape respectively. From the looks on both their faces, neither could've been happier.

Yosuke looked a little less amused, staring at the statue with a grimace. "You'd like to think you'd make friends with someone after spending six freaking hours with them." Which brought another matter to mind. Yosuke turned to Astaire, who was already fishing through his coat. "You ready to start busting out the gear?"

A grin, identical to his stone-hewn self overhead, crossed Astaire's face. "I most certainly am. Behold!" With several heaves, grunts and thumping sounds, the Investigation Team's revamped arsenal was hauled from within Astaire's coat and presented on the base of the statue.

The Blade of Totsuka was inlaid with black, glimmering lines up the blade. Both Malahks had black, glimmering wings and even deadlier edges above. All around it was a similar story, with everyone's weapons having recieved a black-accented makeover. With one notable exception.

"Hey, wait a damn minute, where's mine?!" Kanji shouted indignantly. "You tellin' me I wanted six damn hours on you and you didn't bring me nuthin'?!"

Still fidgeting around in his coat, Astaire gave Kanji a shrug. "I didn't believe I'd need to. By all accounts, the Lightning Drake Greatshield should be right where my mind-addled self left it. If it's good enough for slaying drakes, doubtless it'll be good enough for what lies ahead." He said, devolving into a series of frustrated mumbles under his breath.

Kanji leaned his back against the statue's base and rubbed the back of his head. "I mean… I guess, yeah, jus' feel like I'm being left out, is all." He said, idly looking Astaire and Rise over as the former rustled his coat further. "...Jeez, take your time, why don't ya." He offered.

"Just give me a second, I've got it now." With a final tug, Astaire produced a long, titanite-adorned Claymore, placing over his shoulder and adjusting it into a comfortable position. "Aah, that's the ticket." He sighed contentedly, bringing his other hand to the hilt.

His weapon of choice finally revealed, Rise blinked in awe. "Woah! So much for the glasses making you weaker, that looks heavy!" She chirped, gaze caressing the blade.

"They are. If I wasn't using both hands, I'd be for naught." Astaire motioned his head to Kanji and gave him a smile. "Hopefully, with myself as the sword and Kanji as the shield, we'll be none the worse for wear!"

"Yeah, when I actually get the damn thing." Kanji said with a grin as he propped himself off the statue's base. Given he and Rise were the only ones empty-handed, they were also the only two not weighing their new weapons up. "So, we good or what? We goin'?"

Everyone turned to Yu expectantly as he finished whatever checks he'd bee performing. With a satisfied flick bringing his sword to his shoulder, Yu nodded. "We are. Rise, what's it look like in there?"

Kouzeon's soft light scattered the shadows of innumerable leaves across the grass and stone underfoot. After a cursory scan, Rise perked up underneath her visor. "All clear, Senpai! Looks like nothing's gonna spawn back in once we wipe 'em out!" She announced cheerfully.

As welcome as a rest at a bonfire would have been, Astaire had to admit that the lack of one had its upsides.

Much like everyone else, evidently. Yukiko breathed a sigh of relief as she folded up her fan. "Thank goodness. Hopefully that means nothing's going to sneak up on us this time."

"Careful, or else you'll jinx it." Yu gave her a playful nudge, which she returned in kind. With everyone geared up and the coast seemingly clear, Yu beckoned his friends to follow him as he walked off. "Alright team, let's get to it!"

" _Alright!"_ Came the resounding cry from behind him.

* * *

Traipsing through trees which he knew to be lifeless didn't serve to quell Astaire's thoughts much. Mostly because the looks Yosuke kept giving him were sending his comfort off-kilter. Probably keeping an eye on him to make sure he wasn't fiddling with his glasses. Not that he didn't have plenty of reason to do so, but doing so didn't help settle Astaire's nerves.

He looked like he wanted to say something. What exactly, he could only imagine. Nothing good, at any rate of going. But at least if he said it, it'd clear the air. Put his thoughts at ease and let him focus on the task at hand.

It couldn't be much worse than _'everything was fine before you came here'_ or _'we'd still be living peacefully if you'd never come here'._

Rise watched with curiosity, and then caution, as Astaire reached forward and tapped Yosuke on the shoulder. Without a word, he turned his head. With as many words, Astaire tilted his head, motioning for him to slow down.

Yosuke's glance shifted to Chie, walking beside him, momentarily, before he slowly began to drift further behind her. At the same time, Rise gave Astaire a careful look before swapping places with Yosuke, quickly leading Chie into a discussion over her training regimine.

Smoothly executed. As expected of Rise.

The two fellows fell back a tad further, far enough to be out of immediate earshot. "Okay, what is it?" Yosuke began, keeping his eyes forward.

How best to put it? Astaire began with something simple. "I, er, want to apologise. Again."

Yosuke tutted. "It's fine, forget it."

"If everything were fine, you wouldn't have been giving me such pointed looks all the way here." Astaire pointed out.

Damn, caught out. Not that Yosuke had done much of a job hiding his wariness. "I just don't want anything going wrong, is all. Fighting you hurt bad enough the first time. Plus I don't wanna give Rise another excuse to slap me, either." Yosuke said, running a hand across his cheek.

 _Itch, itch, itch._ The feeling was back. The one Astaire had felt earlier, when everyone had been arguing post-Shadow-rampage. That nagging feeling that'd plagued him in the back of his head. Considering the subject matter, he could guess as to what it might have been. "I don't think you were wrong to do what you did. Attacking me with your Persona, that is. Not to toot my own horn, but I was about ready to off you entirely."

Yosuke froze on the spot. "Wait a minute. You remember that?" Astaire tilted his head quizzically. "I thought you'd just black out when your Shadow took over or something. Did you…?" Yosuke trailed off.

"Do it myself? I… I don't believe so. It's like…" Astaire paused, gazing up at the canopy as though an articulation of his thoughts would dislodge from one of the trees. "...A puppet. It's like being a puppet, made to watch as you're twisted to and fro against your will. To want to stop and scream, only your lips aren't yours to move."

Feelings about him aside, Yosuke felt a chill run down his back. "Jeez. Creepy stuff."

 _Itch, itch._ The feeling persisted as some semblance of silence fell, spurring Astaire into talking again. "I worry that you're right about other things, too." Finally, Yosuke turned to face him, curious. "About troubling Ms. Kujikawa, for one. Try as I might to avoid doing so." Astaire said, his eyes affixed on the ground as he lowered his head.

Silence fell once again. But the itching was gone, if nothing else.

Yosuke couldn't deny that he'd given him shit. It didn't take Kanji, Rise, or even Yu pointing it out to let him know. He was only human, after all, he had a right to protest, especially if it seemed like something was putting his friends in danger. Or someone.

Then again, it seemed like Astaire was the one most oft trampled when standing in harm's way. Yosuke had yet to see any statues of himself or Chie getting stabbed in the gut, after all. Plus, he'd taken it to help Rise _and_ Nanako-chan.

...If someone brought as much trouble with them, but stood and took whatever punishment came about as a result, did that absolve them of having caused it in the first place?

The problem with Yosuke thinking such things was that the question was as much as he could afford. His budget didn't account for a solid answer.

Clearing his throat, Yosuke spoke up again. "I, uh, guess I gotta apologise too. I've been kind of a dick these past few days. It's just… I think I'm tired. Tired of all this, I mean." He outstretched his arms and gazed up at the TV World's sky through the canopy. "Way back when, I used to complain about everything being so _boring._ Country life's pretty uneventful at a glance." Yosuke's expression darkened as he recalled the past. "Then a whole year passed. People died. A whole lot more _almost_ died. Hell, if we didn't do what we did, the whole world might've bitten the dust in the end."

"Good Lords." Astaire commented, eyebrows aloft.

"Got me wondering what might've happened if we hadn't shown up, y'know? If we found out when it was all too late and we just had to let it happen." Yosuke continued, wincing slightly. "Kept me up, some nights. It wasn't boring, that's for sure. But after everything we went through, I knew it wasn't worth it. Nothing's worth putting your friends in harm's way." A wry smile crossed Yosuke's lips. "I kinda just wanna go back to being bored again. It's a hell of a lot safer than this."

Crap, maybe that was a bit too much. He'd wanted to stop being a spook over the guy's shoulder, not to give him his life story. If anything, judging by how quiet he'd gone, he probably felt worse now. Great.

However, Astaire didn't look perturbed at all. Instead, his face flexed with determination as he looked up from the ground and into Yosuke's eyes. "Mark my words, Mr. Hanamura. You _will_ be bored once more. Even if it means fighting tooth and nail, right down to my very last breath. I won't die until this whole bloody thing is wrapped up." He said seriously. Finally, he took a hand away from his Claymore and oustretched it towards Yosuke. "I owe Ms. Kujikawa… no, I owe _all_ of you that much."

Doubts were difficult to discard. Even after their little heart-to-heart, Yosuke could feel them swimming around in his chest. Shouting at him from within that _he was the cause, he was the reason everyone was in danger._

Nevertheless, Yosuke clasped Astaire's hand firmly. "Good. I hope we can count on you."

"And I, you." Astaire said with a nod and a shake of their hands.

The atmosphere seemed to lighten tremendously, leaving the two with a renewed spring in each of their steps. It could only mean that they'd said all they needed to. Feeling more positive than either had in a while, Yosuke and Astaire quickened their paces to join up with their comrades ahead of them.

He wasn't out of the woods yet. Deep down, Yosuke knew he didn't trust him fully. His doubts were still causing an uproar inside him. But he _could_ take solace in one thing.

It was the first time he'd been called 'Mr. Hanamura' since Astaire had arrived, and that could only have been a good sign.

 

* * *

 

Good lord there's a lot of music in this chapter. Both the name _and_ the content itself.

The chapter title's an easy one.

 Kanami's Finnish metal isn't explicitly stated, but this is what I had in mind when writing it.

Next are all the songs Astaire plays on the piano. Sadly, the version of King Chanticleer I used when writing doesn't _actually_ have the lyrics accompanying it, but it's how I imagine him playing it anyway.

Finally, although it's again never stated, here's the Bossa Nova I had in mind for Kanami after she and Rise sing.


	16. Mistress of Arms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Familiar surroundings, a familiar face, and an unfamiliar foe.

The stench of ozone and draconic viscera hung heavily in the air, accompanied by no small measure of stillest silence. One could have dropped a pin and listened to the echo as it landed.

Light and sound interrupted the stillness - briefly fending off the shadow of the tall, foreboding stone tower that lay behind the Lightning Drake's corpse - as the Investigation Team materialised one by one.

" _Gak-!_ Hoo, that reeks!" Teddie broke the silence first, fanning his nose as the smell of recently-slain drake hit him.

Chie carefully approached the head of the beast, examining the caved-in scales atop its head where Astaire had struck it. "Jeez, you really did a number on this thing. Almost looks worse the second time around."

"Sure as hell _smells_ worse." Yosuke added, pinching his nose.

A loud _thud_ of scaled bone off stone sounded out from one side of the drake, followed by a triumphant cheer. "Alright, now we're talkin'! Feel like I could bust up a hundred Shadows at once with this thing!" Kanji said, hauling the Lightning Drake Greatshield off the ground.

"Be careful what you wish for, Kanji-kun." Yukiko added, springing open her fan.

Yu silently approached the base of the tower, gazing up a wide set of stairs at the monstrously tall set of wooden double doors punctuating the entrance. "Everyone form up. There could be anything behind here." He said, beckoning everyone over.

And form up they did. As Rise walked up the stone-hewn steps, she too gazed up the tower in awe. "Holy cow. Here's hoping you know something about what's inside." She said, glancing off to the side in anticipation of Astaire's reply. Only then did it catch her notice that Astaire _wasn't_ at her side for once.

Down one side of the staircase, a small alley, level with the rest of the bridge, appeared to branch off onto a separate path, sloping down the exterior of the tower by way of a precarious-looking set of steps. It was at the top of said steps that Astaire stood rubbing his chin. "Hmm. I wonder where _this_ would take us." He said loud enough for everyone else to hear.

"Dude, c'mon! Between that and the bigass set of doors in the bigass tower, which do you think we should be following first?" Yosuke called down, eyeing up the stairs uneasily. "My vote's with whichever option has less falling to death."

After another second's glancing, Astaire turned and made for the group proper. "Perhaps you're right. In any case, it couldn't simply lead to nowhere. It might be worth looking into later." He shrugged, bringing his claymore back to his shoulder.

The tower doors loomed before the Investigation Team. There passed a moment of silence as everyone braced themselves internally, allowing Yu to walk up and throw his weight into the leftmost door. The ensuing metallic creaking reverberated around the Undead Burg as everyone pushed inside, weapons at the ready.

Teddie was the first to drop his guard. "Woah. What the heck is that, Sensei?"

Thankfully, the innards of the large, circular stone chamber were entirely bare of enemies of any sort. The base of the tower contained only two notable features. A large set of stairs, spiralling up to what seemed to be a second floor, and the feature Teddie had reacted to.

Specifically, a section of the wall coated in a thick patch of black fog, tall and wide, and which seemed to pulsate or writhe of its own accord. Recalling the Crestfallen Warrior's words from before, Yu spoke up. "I think that's the reason we need to go up before we go down. Whatever it is, it doesn't look friendly."

Fog walls were a common enough sight in Lordran. _Black_ fog walls weren't. Needless to say, nobody objected to quickly making for the stairs and putting the fog out of mind, at least for the time being.

* * *

The walk was long. Long enough for Astaire's thoughts to wander as he stared at Yu's back.

What was it about Yu Narukami that _she_ liked?

The moment he'd thought it, Astaire fought the urge to slap himself. Gods, what nonsense. Hardly the sort of thing for a knight to be thinking about, much less in the midst of spelunking through another world. Why was he even thinking it, anyway? What business was it of his?

...But there could've been a few reasons. He seemed courageous, intelligent and methodical. He led the charge into the unknown headlong. Not to mention there was that _pressure_ of his, combined with that comfortable air he carried. It could have been one, a few, or perhaps all of them put together.

He was one of a kind. A man with few equals, if any.

It didn't take a scholar's mind for Astaire to know he wasn't one of them.

"Hey, Astaire-kun?" Rise chirped from behind Astaire, bringing him to attention. "Think you could guess what's coming up next? You recognised the last place we were in, after all."

Any distraction was a welcome one. "Hmmm. Good thinking. Let me see…" Astaire sheathed the claymore on his back and crossed his arms in thought. "Well, after ringing the first bell I went down to the Lower Undead Burg, then to the Depths, then Blighttown…"

"Down ain't much good to us right now, judging by the stairs and all." Kanji rightfully pointed out. "Try thinkin'a when you started going up."

Again, Astaire let out a hum as he retraced his steps. Where in the Burg would have been the first logical step upwards? After going all the way down to Blighttown, surely he'd-

Wait a minute.

He'd gone to Blighttown to ring the second Bell of Awakening. After that was...

"Oh great, this again." Chie groaned. The top of the stairs culminated in a tight left turn, presumably leading through the wall of the tower and out into somewhere else. The only thing stopping anyone was the thick wall of white fog covering the exit. "One type of fog was bad enough, never mind this stuff."

Rise tugged nervously on Astaire's coat. "Hey, we're… we're not gonna be attacked by another Dark Spirit, are we? Like last time?" She asked, recalling the similar fog that can enclosed Nanako's school.

At her concerned tone, Astaire shook himself.

Bah, surely not. The world had presently defied all logic, there was no way _that_ could happen.

Taking his own assurances in stride, Astaire carefully shuffled past Yu on the stairs and approached the fog. "Not this time, Ms. Kujikawa, it's a different kind of fog." He said with a backwards glance, raising his hand and pushing it through the fog. "All you need do is step through and- _oof!_ " He was quickly cut off as he strode through the fog and smacked his nose off the brick wall directly on the other side.

The stairs did indeed end in a left turn, but the fog concealed little more than a small alcove, inside which there lay nothing more than a wooden ladder, leading up a stone shaft. Rubbing the pain out of his nose, Astaire gazed up the ladder's length. It appeared to go on for quite a while. Long enough to where guessing what was atop it wasn't an option. The uncertainty was enough to give him pause.

"Is something the matter?" Naoto asked, peeking around Kanji on the stairs.

For the briefest of moments, Astaire's eyes flitted to Yu.

He may not have been equal to him, but that didn't mean he couldn't start making a go at it.

"Not a thing. Follow me." Astaire said before he made for the ladder, ascending without hesitation.

"I'll go last! Someone needs to act as a safety cushion if any of the girls should happen to fall mid-climb!" Teddie's voice reverberated up the stony shaft.

A sound suspiciously close to a knock on the head followed. "As if, you stupid bear! Get up there before I kick you up there!" Chie fumed in response.

Astaire sighed as he ceased climbing. This was going to take a while.

* * *

"Is anyone else feeling a little tired?" Yukiko asked mid-climb.

"Heck no, this is a cinch!" Chie boasted. "Would you hurry it up already, Yosuke?! Any slower and I'm gonna fall asleep down here!" She called up past Kanji.

"It's not me, it's this doofus up ahead!" Yosuke protested, jabbing Teddie in the back of the ankle. "If you're gonna slack off, do it when we're _not_ inside the TV! Or on a ladder!" He hollered.

Teddie paused to counter-protest, looking down as best a bulbous bear could. "Ooh! Is that official permission to slack off when we're working, then?" He asked excitedly.

"Just get a move on, damn it!" Kanji and Yosuke shouted up in unison.

"If you all stopped arguing and kept climbing, we'd already be there!" Rise jumped in too, stuck at the bottom of the climbing formation. "Astaire-kun, do we have much longer to go?!" She shouted up the shaft.

Her answer didn't come. Far above her, Astaire braced his ears over the sound of the ensuing argument. There was _something_ there. A sound coming from up above them. Whatever it was, it had a rhythm to it, and it sounded vaguely metallic. In fact, the closer it got, the more it began to sound oddly familiar to Astaire's ear.

...No way. It couldn't be. Under normal circumstances, it'd have made sense, but nothing about this other world made sense. It had to be impossible. It had to be, right? Please Lords let it be impossible.

Upon reaching the top and peeking his head out, Astaire froze in place. "Oh, bugger."

So close to the top, the rhythmic sound was loud enough that everyone could make it out. "What's up?" Yu asked, peeking around Astaire's heels. "You see what's making all the noise up there?"

Astaire bit his lip anxiously before peeking back down at him.

Alright, so it wasn't impossible.

"So, er… Do you recall when we first met, and I happened to bring up Sen's Fortress…?"

* * *

This was, as Kanji would've put it, fucking bullshit.

The only way forward consisted of a narrow walkway, leading to the other side of the vast, open space in the center. The alternative was a set of sheer drops on either side which, when Yu dared to peek over them, led to a pit of black, tar-like sludge.

But that wasn't the worst part. That would've been the pendulums.

Along the walkway's length, and every walkway which seemed to be placed above it, lay a barrage of thick, bladed pendulums, swinging rhythmically from side to side. Each intimidating _whoosh_ made them seem even sharper than before.

"You've gotta be frickin' kidding me!" Kanji said, looking up at the walkways overhead with wide eyes. "How the hell are we supposed to get through a deathtrap like this?!" Because as good as it seemed, a bigass greatshield wouldn't stop a pendulum, nor the ensuing fall afterwards.

"Try asking the guy who knows it by name." Yosuke suggested. "Yo, Astaire-san, how- _What are you doing?!_ " Yosuke bellowed as he turned to Astaire, who had begun striding towards the pendulums without a second thought.

Everyone's breaths caught in their chests as Astaire took his first steps out onto the narrow walkway, the first pendulum diving for his side. Rise moved forward to let out a scream as it drew closer, and closer, until…

It passed Astaire by entirely, whipping up his coattails.

"Hmm. It appears as though we'll need to work our way around the outer perimeter in order to go much higher." Astaire casually assessed, stopping and rubbing his chin as he looked up. "I can see some odd shapes further up there. Hard to say what they are, but I doubt it's anything good." He said between whooshes of wind from the pendulum at his side.

"Uh… Astaire-kun?" Rise called out.

"Yes?" _Whoosh._ The pendulum seemed so close that it was a wonder Astaire hadn't lost his nose. He didn't even flinch. Or blink, for that matter.

"Do you think you could come over and-?" Was as far as Rise got towards asking for help, as something wrenched Astaire's attention away from her.

_Whoosh. Whoosh._ There was something else. Another sound, much closer by. _Whoosh. Whoosh. -ss._

There it was again. Curiously, carefully, Astaire inched forward towards the source of the sound, casually avoiding another pendulum as though it weren't even there. Where was that sound coming from?

Yu's voice from behind didn't help. "Hey, we need to stick together, come back here!" Though his voice fell upon preoccupied ears.

_Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh._

_**Hissss.** _

Before Astaire could turn to warn everyone about the noise, pain quickly rushed into his ankle. The head of a giant snake, coiling up from underneath the walkway, had sunk its fangs into him in a flash, bloodying his leg. " _AGH! Bloody Manserpents!"_

'Serpent', everyone understood. It was only when _the humanoid body, attached to the snake by the neck,_ slipped up onto the top of the walkway, that the 'Man' part sunk in.

Yu didn't even need to speak. Pendulums be damned, the Investigation Team formed up and dashed out onto the walkway, weapons at the ready.

The Manserpent released itself from Astaire's leg, reeling back and aiming for his shoulder. It was interrupted as a recently-equipped pair of gauntlets forced its jaws apart, giving Astaire a sobering view of the vicious fangs that hungered for his flesh.

He chanced a glimpse over his shoulder. The pendulums had successfully slowed everyone down as the sheer intimidation factor began to sink in proper.

They didn't have the rhythm down. If they had, they would have reached him long ago. But they were playing it safe.

Astaire couldn't fault them, given they weren't the ones with a map of Lordran etched into their skulls, nor the ones who had been through Sen's Fortress enough times to register the pendulums mentally invisible. But he could fault the Snake-headed monstrosity before him for not taking that into consideration, because it only bit down harder with time.

Well, sometimes pain was simply unavoidable.

Bracing himself, Astaire relinquished his hold on the Manserpent's upper jaw, leaving it free to sink its fangs into his left arm. Before it could recoil again, the blade of a black dagger slipped under its scales and tore downwards with ease. The Manserpent released its vice grip and hissed angrily at Astaire as it continued to bleed over the walkway.

Rise watched anxiously as Astaire shook the pain out of his arm. "Sneak up on _me,_ will you?!" He growled, clenching a blood-soaked fist at his side. As the Manserpent staggered and writhed, Astaire stepped forward and launched a kick at its humanoid abdomen, sending it over the edge of the walkway and hissing to an early, pitch-black grave.

The hot, sharp feeling in Astaire's leg and arm quickly dissipated as a refreshing wave of light washed over him. "That's what you get for rushing ahead on your own." Yukiko said as Sumeo-Okami faded out behind her.

"Had I known there were Manserpents adhering to the bottom of the walkway, I'd have been quicker talked out of it. I've never seen them do that before." Astaire explained, peering at the rest of the walkways above. "If it stops them having swords and shields, I suppose it could be worse, but-"

Rise cleared her throat to interrupt. "Snake men." Astaire nodded. "Big enough to bite your head off." And he nodded again. "Armed with swords and shields."

"I suppose if one wanted to be picky, they'd technically be _great_ swords, but yes." Astaire nodded again.

A single Manserpent, as unarmed as someone with a snake's head could be, could easily have done any normal person in. One strong haul to the side and it may even have done Astaire in. But with shields and greatswords?

Everyone looked amongst themselves apprehensively, a few of their faces a shade or two paler than before. The only exception was Astaire. "Oh, don't be like that. Much like these pendulums-" He took a few steps backward without looking, narrowly avoiding another pendulum as he went. "-Manserpents are easily dealt with once you know how."

"A bit like Shadows, then!" Teddie perked up, deftly hopping past the pendulum's swing. "I guess it's not so scary when you look at it that way!"

"No, I still kinda think it is…" Rise added anxiously. The only thing that could make giant snake-headed people less scary was getting rid of them as soon as possible.

Between swings, Astaire extended his hand out to Rise and quickly whisked her to his and Teddie's sides. "Fret not, they haven't a sinner's chance in Heaven while we're here." He assured her with a smile. "From the looks of things, they don't appear any more prevalent in this world than they were in mine, and I managed just rightly on my own back then."

"It _does_ appear that the odds are in our favour." Naoto admitted, hopping over with Kanji shortly behind her.

"Sure sounds like it to me." Yosuke added. "Keep 'em coming like this and we'll be back before the sun goes down."

* * *

" _ **YOU AND YOUR BIG FREAKING MOUTH, YOSUKE! AND YOUR STUPID-MASSIVE FEET TOO!"**_ Chie bellowed as Haraedo-no-Okami sent another three Manserpents flying into the wall.

"It looked just like the rest of the floor, how was I supposed to know?!" Yosuke retorted, quickly scarpering from the stone pressure plate underfoot and twirling his daggers into position. "Guess I'll just have to make it up to everyone then!" He kicked off, slipping around the nearest Manserpent and aiming for their back.

"Left, left!" Rise called out from behind Astaire and Kanji, fist-pumping as Kanji blocked the incoming sword strike, recoiling the Manserpent long enough for Astaire to slice its head off in one fell swoop. "Nice going, guys! Keep it up!" She cheered.

One would think that being in the middle of an all-out onslaught of steel and scales would've made someone feel a little more uneased than not at all. But with Kanji deflecting beatings on one side, and Astaire dishing them out twofold on the other, Rise couldn't help but let her joy sneak out.

A cry of _'Brave Blade'_ automatically caught Astaire's attention, owed in part to the instinctive prickle from his prior wound at hearing it. Izanagi-no-Okami tore through the serpents like they weren't even there.

However, it didn't escape Astaire's notice that they were only being torn through one at a time.

"Persona! _Persona!"_ Every cry seemed to knock Yu another step back. For every Manserpent that went down, two more would inch ever closer to him. Megidolaon was out of the question. Given the look of the brickwork, a shock of that size could probably knock the whole place down, or set off more traps in the event that it didn't.

As a healing spell from Yukiko renewed his energy, Yu backed off and briefly closed his eyes. "Time for a different approach. _Come, Shiva!"_ When Yu opened his eyes, Izanagi-no-Okami had been replaced, with a four-armed, blue-skinned Persona in his stead. "Now, _Pralaya!_ "

It was hard to say what exactly _'Pralaya'_ meant, or what it involved. But it was strong enough to where Kanji needed to shield himself, Rise and Astaire from the impact. It was also strong enough that the remains of the Manserpents in front of Yu were of a similar consistency to bloodied sand.

For the briefest of moments, Astaire was in awe, swearing he felt the tiniest bit smaller afterwards.

A collective hiss from behind warned that the fight wasn't over. Astaire and Kanji barely had time to turn before being set upon by even more serpents, with barely enough time to spare to clash arms and keep them at bay. But more were coming from behind them, drawing ever closer with each passing second.

With a flash, Kouzeon was at Rise's back. "Come on, come on… there!" She threw her visor up and cupped her hands around her mouth. " _They're weak to fire!"_

_Ding._ Off went the lightbulb in Astaire's head. If ever there was a time to shine by way of pyromantic mastery, it was now! Reaching into the depths of his soul, Astaire clenched a fist and-!

Felt nothing.

Oh, _bugger._

Fantastic. Fan-bloody-tastic. Of all the times for all hints of pyromancy he had to turn tail and scarper, it _had_ to be now. Of course. Astaire rolled his eyes and heaved as he launched his Claymore at the nearest Serpent, delving into his box immediately after.

"What the-?! Things are dangerous enough without you throwing swords all over the damn place! Catch and grip and-" Kanji began, only to be cut short at the sight of the weapon Astaire retrieved in his sword's place.

Curved, spiked, chitinous, and overall just _dangerous_ looking, the sword was quickly primed for work as Astaire stepped out from behind Kanji's shield. Before he or Rise could utter a word of protest, the blade was engulfed in a thick plume of fire, cascading behind it like a scarf as Astaire quickly set about doing what he did best.

The light cast shadows along the floor, with the ensuing pained hisses being drowned out by the sound of sizzling serpentflesh. Astaire's grunts and shouts echoed around the fortress interior, until his was the only voice left to do so.

Quelaag's Furysword came to a halt as Astaire caught his breath, looking around to admire his handiwork. Cauterised wounds of varying positions and sizes littered what few Manserpents were left in one piece. The heads of the unluckier sorts were brushed aside by Astaire's ankles as he walked back towards Kanji and Rise, looking sufficiently satisfied with himself.

"That's an… interesting sword you've got there." Yu commented as politely as someone surrounded by snake heads could. "Don't think any we've ever come across have done _that._ "

Considering none of their weapons carried the soul of some half-spider, half-woman, half-hellfire abomination, Astaire wasn't exactly surprised. What _did_ surprise him was Rise jumping into his view, eyes atwinkle. "That was _so cool!_ You just went all-!" She threw her arms forward, imitating Astaire's throw, "...and then you were all-!" Before imitating his myriad slashes afterwards.

As much as Astaire wished to express a modicum of modesty, watching Rise and smiling like a twit proved more fun.

"It _is_ kinda cool how you can switch weapons like that. Kinda reminds me of how Yu-kun switches Personas." Chie added. "Almost makes me wish we'd had someone who could do that last year. Seems pretty versatile."

"Wait a sec, about that." Yosuke barged in, lightly pointing one of his daggers at Astaire's Furysword. "First that dagger you pulled out earlier and now that scary-looking thing. I thought stuff that wasn't upgraded was no good." He rightly pointed out.

Much to Astaire's chagrin, apparently, as he turned away with an awkward grin. "Well, I… _might_ have requested more than a few items from Master Daidara yesterday, that's all."

His awkward grin faltered slightly as Yosuke narrowed his eyes at him. "Oh yeah? How many?" He growled. He watched Astaire sweat bullets, eyes darting to and fro as he tried to think of an excuse, before he lost it. "I _knew_ it! We waited for six hours! _SIX HOURS!_ Of all the things I could've been doing on my day off and you're sitting in there…" Yosuke rattled on, six hour's worth of impatient frustration venting all at once.

His temper might've seemed like a more serious issue if the girls, Kanji and Teddie hadn't been snickering behind his back.

"Alright Yosuke, save it. We need to keep moving forward." Yu said, rallying everyone into position as they began to move further into the Fortress. "And keep an eye out for more pressure plates this time. We can't afford many more beatings like that." He ordered as they went.

Enthusiastic shouts of affirmation came from everyone bar Astaire, lost in his thoughts.

Being compared to Yu Narukami had made him feel the slightest twinge brighter, for some reason.

* * *

Difference #4 and #5: Astaire didn't mind fighting alone, and he also didn't like running from a fight.

Both, Rise was fairly sure, were pretty admirable traits under most circumstances.

They weren't _quite_ as smart under _these_ circumstances.

Apparently razor-toothed Manserpents with swords and shields just wasn't hellish enough for the TV World, because Astaire was trying his damndest to fend off one with _four arms, four swords and lightning magic._ All the while, more scaled, two-armed monstrosities sprinted towards him.

Between them and another longer, pendulum-laden walkway, Yu knew which he'd rather chance. "Hurry up and come on! There's no way they can catch us if we get to the other side first!" He shouted a second time, beckoning Astaire on. Not that it did much, given his back was to him.

"I told you, I can handle this! I need all but a few more seconds!" Astaire shouted back, fending off four swords with a single one of his own. Every time it seemed like his opponent would lash out and rend him in twain, he'd dodge backwards with practiced timing. But the other snakes were still drawing in.

From under Kouzeon's visor, Rise beamed her voice into Astaire's head. "What the heck are you doing?! You only have a few more seconds until you're swarmed!"

"How many?!" Astaire asked, backing off further, towards a curiously dipped part of the floor.

Rise blinked. "E-eh?"

"How many seconds do I have until they get me?!" He shouted, backing off again. The serpents were even closer now.

Whatever his reason, Rise didn't argue. As she nervously watched the innumerable blips on Kouzeon's radar soar towards the one ally-blue dot, she counted down in her head as she spoke aloud to Astaire, watching him cross over the dipped floor section on his heels.

Four. The Serpents grouped up closer together.

Three. The four-armed Serpent lunged for Astaire.

Two. _Astaire was knocked off balance._

One. _Oh God, no._

She didn't bother vocalising the 'Zero'. Rise held her breath as the horde of Serpents fanned out and began to take formation before Astaire, all raising their weapons in unison. He wasn't in a fighting stance. He didn't have a shield. He was done for.

Then came the rumbling. It grew in intensity until Rise could feel the vibrations from the ground run up her legs and quake her heart. When it seemed like the rumbling was approaching its peak, a massive metal boulder came rushing from an opening in the wall beside Astaire, who leapt back just in time for it to messily demolish every Serpent in its way.

Fading hisses amongst his newly-reddened surroundings informed Astaire that he was safe once more.

On the ground, a single pressure plate next to the gently-dipping section of the floor shifted back up into position. With a satisfied smile, Astaire rubbed the blood from the rightmost lens of his glasses and finally turned to follow everyone else.

"There, see? I told you I could handle it." Astaire said confidently, tapping his fist off his chest as he passed by Rise and made to lead the way through the pendulums.

Luckily, the plated metal armour he wore kept Astaire from feeling the intent gaze Rise held on his back.

She should've been worried. In less than an hour he'd almost gotten himself killed twice, and usually that sort of frequency was reason enough to be a little concerned for someone.

But something about that grin, that stride, that confidence after he'd played the Serpents for fools, balled Rise up inside in a manner entirely different from concern.

* * *

Light!

After crossing the pendulum-infested walkway, there was light! A passageway to somewhere outside the Fortress walls! Elation was rife amongst the Investigation Team as they were immediately drawn to the exit, as though the light had sprouted hands and coaxed them along with a warm embrace.

"I can't believe it!" Kanji began, wiping his brow as he looked around. "We really made it outsiiiiidamn it." He quickly petered out as he looked up.

There were no save points. No convenient places to teleport back from in order to take a break. There was but a single, albeit wide, set of stairs wrapping further around the tower's exterior. An elbow-high wall paraded around the outside of them, with one segment broken off in such a way that it gave a view of how far they'd come.

And Good lord, they had come far. The Undead Burg was so far below that it felt dizzying to even consider the prospect of falling off.

Quick to take his mind off it, Yu clapped his hands together. "Seems about the right time for a break, if you ask me. Everyone rest up a little while." He commanded calmly, striding over to the stairs and sitting himself down on the bottommost steps.

After what they'd just been through, nobody was of the mind to disagree.

"We're barely even up this tower and I already hate this stupid world." Yosuke complained, swearing he could feel his skin tingle where the Serpent Mage's lightning magic had struck him.

"Tell me about it." Chie said, sighing as Yukiko's healing magic sealed up the bite marks embedded in her left thigh. "Something about fighting in here feels… different from before. Like, it _hurts_ a lot worse, or something."

A thought Rise would have agreed with, had she not been otherwise engaged. "C'mere and hold still, I'm not letting you fight with only one eye." She ordered Astaire, whipping a tissue out from her pocket and cleaning the blood from his lenses as best she could. "And stop humming like that. It'd be easier if you took your glasses off, but after last time we can't just-"

"Humming? What are you talking about?" Astaire asked, raising an eyebrow as Rise cleared his other lens.

"That humming you were doing just now. Like- _Hummmm._ " Rise said, crossing her arms and putting on a faux-serious face.

Was that supposed to be what he looked li-? Oh, forget that for now. "I never hummed a note. Are you sure you're not hearing things?"

"Hmmmm…"

There it was again. Everyone slowly stopped what they were doing and cautiously began eyeing one another up. "Woah. Anyone else hear that?" Kanji asked carefully, already putting one hand to his shield.

"I know I did!" Teddie said, looking much more cheerful than anyone else. "And it sounded like a girl's humming, if you ask me!"

Rise, Naoto, Yukiko and Chie all bristled in unison as they became the sudden centers of interest for everyone's questioning gazes. "You don't think…?" Chie began, gulping mid-sentence. "I-It couldn't be more ghosts again, right?" Her words bristled everyone a second time, to the point where Naoto hid her face under her cap to hide her expression.

"Hmm. Hmmmmmmm." Came the humming again, louder than before. Loud enough, in fact, to gauge the direction from which it had come. Namely, from the broken-off segment of wall bordering the stairs.

"Eh? That _couldn't_ be right! Time to do a little snooping!" Teddie announced, bobbing over to the precarious-looking gap and taking a cursory look down towards the ground. "Wuh-wuh-what?! Sensei, there's someone here!"

Immediately, everyone was on their feet and making a beeline for the gap in the wall. How could _anyone_ be, not only as far up the tower as they'd come, traps and all, but be situated anywhere close to what appeared to be a sheer drop?

Upon peering over Teddie's shoulders, everyone quickly got their answer.

A small outcropping, barely wide enough to sit on, was situated below the stone gap. Had the figure atop it not been humming, they might almost have passed for some manner of bulbous, onion-headed gargoyle.

"Hmmm. Stuck. Very much stuck indeed." The figure said, their high-pitched, feminine voice tinny under their oddly-shaped helmet. "Perhaps there's a lake somewhere far below. If I landed in it, maybe I could…" She continued, drumming her fingers on the rotund torso of her armour in thought. "...No, that'd never work. Hmmm. I've got to use my head and think..."

Whoever she was, the armoured girl was so occupied with talking to herself that it took a moment before anyone else thought to speak up. It almost felt like they were interrupting something. Luckily, someone amongst them had interrupted a similar scene in the past.

"Sieglinde?!" Astaire blurted out in disbelief.

Rise swore she felt her blood freeze in her veins.

"Sir Astaire?!" Sieglinde shifted around and blurted back, her voice brimming with joy and hope.

Rise also swore she felt her frozen blood begin to turn her into an idol-shaped topsicle.

Everyone parted as Astaire knelt down and clasped Seiglinde firmly by the hand, lifting her entire weight, armour, bastard sword and all, up onto the main platform. After which, Sieglinde lowered her onion-shaped helmet in a bow. "Pardon me, I was absorbed in thought. Thank you ever so much for your assistance, I don't know what I would have done without you!"

Not being a vocalist of any sort, Astaire hadn't exactly the right vocabulary pool to properly get across how Sieglinde's voice had sounded to Rise. She guessed it was some kind of memorable, otherwise he wouldn't have tried so hard to put it into words. By the end of his story, the most concrete descriptor the two of them could muster had been "Cute."

Under her breath, Rise finally just swore.

Cute was an understatement. A horrific, vast, and gross understatement at that.

It must've been overwhelming for Astaire too, because his mouth had been ajar from the moment he'd pulled her up. Ajar, but not unhappy, Rise noted. His expression seemed to shift every second, as though trying to think of what to say to her first took rigorous, physical effort.

Unfortunately, Teddie had no such issue. "Wowee! Who'd have thought such a nice girl would be found sitting around a dump like this?!" He enthused, in a manner which Astaire now recognised as 'distinctly Teddie-ish'. Sieglinde turned to face him, prompting a glint in Teddie's eye like that of a master fisherman getting a bite. "Oh, it's almost too wonderful for words! I can see now why you wear such a funny-looking helmet, because only such a gorgeous onion could move me to tears!"

As Teddie began welling up well-practiced crocodile tears, he failed to notice Astaire turn away and briskly put some distance between himself and Sieglinde, marching towards Rise. The reason why- "Excuse you?!" -shortly became apparent. "How dare you mock the armour of a Catarina knight!" Seiglinde fumed, so intensely that steam didn't seem far behind.

Teddie blinked in confusion as he froze on the spot. For someone with such short legs, he did a remarkable job of putting his foot in his mouth.

As Sieglinde's rage became manifest in an aggressive master's thesis on the benefits of Catarina armour, Astaire felt his lips curl upwards. Before long, he bore a full grin and sniggered to himself. "What? What's so funny?" Rise asked from beside him.

"She's-! She's just like her father!" Astaire whispered as best a sniggering knight could. Which was not at all well. "First the humming and now this! Brilliant!"

From the looks of things, Teddie regretted his existence more and more each second. Which, while amusing, wasn't awfully practical. Thus, Yu took it upon himself to clasp Sieglinde by the pauldron, stopping her mid-rant. "Sorry about him, Sieglinde-san. He's Teddie." He shrugged. "I'm Yu Narukami. These are my friends, Yosuke…" Yu quickly ran through everyone's names before stopping on his last target. "...and Astaire-san, it seems you already know."

The two paused as they drew each other's respective attentions. "I'm…" Astaire cleared his throat. "It brings me great joy to see you safe." He smiled, shortly before remembering where they all were and staring up at the tower. "...If one could call such surroundings safe."

"What were you even doing here, Sieglinde-san?" Yukiko asked politely. "You seemed to be between a rock and a hard place down there."

"That's exactly where I was!" Sieglinde chirped, taking a moment to sit down on the stairs. "I don't quite recall where I was before this, but all of a sudden I found myself brought here by… well, something. When I-"

Before she could go any further, Yu held out a hand. "Wait a minute. Something _brought_ you here? You don't remember what it was, do you?" If fate was on their side, this may have been the first step towards nailing down a culprit!

Fate was not on their side. "I'm afraid I don't. All I know is that I certainly wasn't here to begin with, and then suddenly I was." Sieglinde recounted, looking behind herself and up the stairs. "When I came to, I decided to go further up and… er…" She paused to gaze down at her interlinking fingers. "...Well, that was the rock, so to speak."

"Lemme guess. Downstairs is the hard place?" Yosuke asked, receiving a nod. "Figures. I don't blame you for not wanting to run in there on your own." He shrugged. Hell, even going in with _nine_ people in tow had felt like a gamble.

Even with his assurances, Sieglinde seemed and sounded far from pleased. "...I suppose. I decided to rest a while and weigh my options, and before I knew it, the wall gave out behind me! I thought I was done for before you lot arrived!"

Something about the whole situation bothered Naoto. It wasn't anything specific or obvious, but the sense of unease that greeted her didn't lie. Sieglinde's story told more than she let on. It was just a matter of pinning down what it was. "You said you investigated further up this tower. Could you tell us what sorts of dangers await us, then?" Naoto asked. Whatever was bugging her, if it wasn't immediately evident, all that left was to continue on.

"There are less swinging blades, at least!" Sieglinde tried her best to sound cheerful. "...However, there's also quite a lot of…" She nonetheless dragged off.

A whole lot of _everything else,_ then. Wonderful. A chorus of groans sounded out as the thought of running another gauntlet slugged everyone in their respective stomachs. Down to the steps they sat, sensing that a little more R&R was all the preparation they were going to get.

Without a bonfire, R&R didn't even register in Astaire's mind. He hunched over to level his head with Sieglinde's as she sat. "You _do_ mean to continue on, don't you? You can't very well stay here forever."

The light adorning her helmet shifted as Sieglinde tilted her head. "I suppose that's true. It's hardly the most treacherous thing we've done together, is it?" She laughed gently.

"Not at all. I'm not sure if I should be glad about that or not!" Astaire laughed in much the same manner.

Out of sight, Rise eyed the two of them up cautiously. He still hadn't stopped smiling. He hadn't stopped the entire time. If it got any wider his face was going to split in half.

"Perhaps we should let Sieglinde-san accompany us, then." Naoto offered. "One more person with knowledge of Astaire-san's world could prove invaluable."

On one hand, Sieglinde would gain a small army with which to proceed. On the other, the Investigation Team would gain more knowledge and skills from the other world they were fighting against.

Hell, what did anyone have to lose? "Sounds like a plan. Tag along with us if you want to, Sieglinde-san. The more the merrier." Yu said, hopping to his feet. "Just let us know if you need healing or anything, we've got you covered." He smiled gently.

Sieglinde got to her feet, turned to face everyone, and paused.

Their warm, trusting, inviting faces were a far cry from anything anyone in Lordran had ever offered her, Astaire notwithstanding. From that, there was little doubt. _These_ were the people to travel with. "Right you are! I shall do my very best to be of assistance, on my honour!" Sieglinde chirped happily.

And so the climb, coiling around the outside of the tower, began. Everyone went at their own pace, the brickwork clicking and clacking underfoot, joined by the metallic shifting of two sets of armour.

Really quick shifting, actually.

As soon as it had caught Yu's ear, the answers quickly overtook him on either side. Astaire on his left and Sieglinde on his right, each brandishing greatswords over their shoulders. "Planning on leaving us behind, you two?" He asked jokingly.

"On the contrary, Sir Narukami!" Sieglinde began, waving dismissively with her Pierce Shield in her off-hand.

"We simply thought we'd give you all a chance to catch your respective breaths, is all." Astaire followed up. Before he'd even finished speaking, he could see the opposition welling up in Yu's eyes. He was running on ahead again. However, this time was different. "Just you wait, and you'll see you can put your trust in the both of us. We aren't green as grass, you know."

He pushed his glasses up his nose and gave the path ahead a toothy grin.

"In fact, you could say this sort of thing is our bread and butter."

* * *

Rise couldn't help but pout.

"On me, Sir Astaire!" Sieglinde called out, thrashing another Manserpent back just as Astaire tore through another three in front of her with one swing. "Brilliant, that's the way!"

She also couldn't help but grind her teeth. As stiff as her jaw felt, the urge simply wouldn't leave her.

"Slither back to your hovel, foul beast!" Astaire roared, laying waste to the two Manserpents that approached Sieglinde from behind, adding to the quickly-growing pile around their feet.

It was actually uncanny. Like they were hooked up to the same brain stem and knew exactly what the other was thinking. Nothing else could explain how efficient they were. They were like a single, well-oiled machine, armed to the teeth and lubricated with the blood of their enemies.

"For crying out-! _Rise, get your head in the game!"_ Chie screeched from the other side of the large, square platform. "These things are coming out of the woodwork, we _need_ you!" She shouted, narrowly dodging out of the way and tripping a Manserpent over the edge, down through the twisted web of metal and stone they'd fought their way up.

"S-Sorry! There's another two climbing up from below, next to Senpai!" Rise shouted, immediately throwing herself back into the battle with her friends. Chie was right, this wasn't the time for distractions. They _needed_ her.

...It was just a shame that Astaire didn't need her too.

Despite the difference in numbers, the Investigation Team's growing pile of corpses was still lower than their armoured rivals'. No matter how many shield-bashes and gunshots emanated, or final hisses limply dragged out, they simply couldn't seem to catch up.

And even then, they were more outnumbered than they knew. _"Force!"_ Sieglinde cried out, gripping a talisman and emitting a shockwave outwards from herself, throwing more Manserpents to their gravity-induced doom. Then she was right back to pounding them to mush again, without missing a beat.

Cute. Well-mannered. Strong. Brave.

...The two of them had a lot in common.

The longer Rise looked on, the more distant and foolish she began to feel. It seemed like Kanami was the least of her worries.

" _RISE!"_ Yu shouted this time. His harsh tone was quick to whip her thoughts back in order.

Right, right. Back to analysing. Everybody was spread out. Their vitals weren't perfect, but they weren't worrying either. As for the enemy count, they- "Oh, _crap."_ Rise squeaked. Something was coming for Chie. Something big. "Chie-senpai, you-!"

A hiss from behind sent a cold electric shock down Rise's spine. It was so close she swore she felt the tongue lapping at her neck. More than her friends, she hadn't kept an eye on herself. Unable to fight, and unable to process what to do, her eyes shut on instinct.

A masculine bellow, followed by the sound of crushing bone and squelching flesh, opened them again. Whatever had _been_ behind her, that fact that Astaire loomed over her - his armour barely having settled from his subsonic sprint towards her - suggested that it hadn't stayed long. "Are you alright?" He asked, fixing his glasses on his nose.

He spoke so casually, it was as if he _hadn't_ just closed what Rise estimated to be a good 12 metres in the blink of an eye. Her heart pounding - whether from fear or something else, she couldn't say - Rise managed a nod.

"Good. That's a relief." Astaire sighed. His relief was short-lived as a feminine scream sounded out from behind him.

The 'something big' which had been gunning for Chie had finally caught up. It was a Manserpent, yes, but the scales were tipped more in the 'serpent' direction. Above the neck it was longer, thicker, and far too large for the humanoid body to support while standing up.

But more importantly, it was wrapped around Chie. Her mouth opened to scream again, but only choking sounds escaped as she was constricted tighter and tighter. Her eyes rolled back into her head as the last of her air began to leave her.

" _TAKEHAYA SUZANO-O!"_

A sudden burst of momentum sent Chie and her constrictor into the air, where the latter let out an ear-rattling hiss. A hiss which was cut short as Yosuke rocketed into the air, his daggers a blur as he scissored the Serpent's massive head from its equally massive neck.

Although the tightness loosened around her, Chie found herself unable to move. Her body began to slip freely from the scales, unable to resist gravity's enticing pull.

In two simultaneous motions, Takehaya-Suzano-o diced the headless corpse into innumerable tiny, meaty pieces, while Yosuke himself - "Gotcha!" -broke Chie's fall before the ground could claim her. Her breaths sounded laboured, and her body remained limp in his arms. "Shit, shit! Chie, are you alright?!"

Chie's eyes lingered on Yosuke's. She looked like she wanted to say something, but the sheer effort needed to breathe made her refrain from doing so. That all changed the moment a hastily-cast Diarahan from Yukiko washed over her. In the space of a second, expressions of shock, fear, confusion, and finally, embarrassed realisation, flitted across her face in sequence.

"W-What the-?! Put me down already, you moron!" Chie's elbow said to Yosuke's ribs.

One fell unceremoniously to the ground as the other hunched over in pain, clutching their side. Thankfully, Yosuke's doing so gave Chie enough time to try and compose herself as she turned her back on her quickly-approaching friends. " _Chie!_ " Yukiko was the first to meet her proper, hugging her tightly from behind. "Are you sure you're alright?! You're not still hurt, are you?!"

" _She_ isn't…" Yosuke wheezed from afar.

Wheezing was all he could do as Rise bolted to the front of the concerned crowd, her eyes already welling up with tears. "Chie-senpai! Oh my god, I'm so sorry, this is all my fault!" She said, bowing her head low. "If I'd been paying attention, this wouldn't have happened!"

"I doubt it'd have happened if Madame Satonaka had been paying adequate attention too." Sieglinde added, shrugging casually.

Evidently, she hadn't been anticipating the sheer fury Chie flew into after she'd said it. "Excuse me?! What exactly are you implying, huh?!" She asked indignantly, squaring up to Sieglinde properly. "I'll have you know I'm perfectly cautious, always!"

" _That's putting it generously."_ Yu mumbled, glancing away as Chie shot him a glare.

"Really? I'd hardly think so, if you didn't sense something that large coming." Sieglinde continued innocently. "If it wasn't for Sir Hanamura and those strange powers your friends have, you mightn't be standing here at all!" Her tone wasn't malicious in the slightest, but her words felt as though they could cut to the bone.

As much as Chie wanted to argue, she wasn't the one who was Personaless and peering through a tiny slit in a suit of bulbous, cumbersome, heavy-looking armour without having taken a single hit. Mumbling something akin to 'I guess.' under her breath, she backed off.

"Be that as it may, Rise's the one who's supposed to keep us posted on stuff like that." Yu began, tripling Rise's already considerable levels of shame. "But… I guess nobody's too badly hurt. If Chie's breaking Yosuke's ribs and squaring up to people, she can't be _too_ badly injured, right?" He added, easing her shame only partially.

Sieglinde let out a tinny, thoughtful hum. "If you insist." She shrugged, walking off towards the next staircase in their way. "I would advise against overreliance on any one member of your team, though. It will only spell your collective doom should something happen to them." She said, her usual innocent tone clashing somewhat with her sinister-sounding warning.

Just shy of having his hairs standing to attention, Yu ushered everyone forward. "Let's keep moving, everyone. The only way is up." He announced, flicking the serpentblood from his sword. Before mobilising proper, he leaned into Rise and whispered. _"Just make sure this doesn't happen again, alright?"_

Reaching a zenith of regret, Rise wiped her eyes. "Yeah, Senpai." She managed as well as someone with a tied-up throat could. Without another word, Yu made to catch up with Sieglinde, bringing everyone behind him.

Running up perilous, possibly-trapped stairs with wet eyes wasn't the best idea, but Rise gave it no mind. How could she help it? She didn't need Senpai to say anything to know he was disappointed, and he'd gone and said something anyway. The further they got up the tower, the less and less Rise wished to continue on, and she hadn't been too fussed to begin with.

It was only when Astaire cleared his throat that she realised he was behind her, not up front with Sieglinde. "If I may, Ms. Kujikawa." He started, hunching over to whisper in her ear. _"Don't dwell on it. You're not the first person to make a mistake, and you shan't be the last. Not while I'm here, anyway."_

He offered her a smile from over her shoulder. Before long, Rise found herself wearing one too. She nodded affirmatively as she wiped her eyes, at which point Astaire finally took off to meet Sieglinde's side once more.

So _that's_ why he stayed behind.

The knot in Rise's throat slowly but surely began to loosen.

* * *

"You can't use Pyromancy?! Truly?!" Sieglinde balked as she and Astaire strode down the empty, narrow walkway in front of everyone else, ignoring the sheer drop to their entry point below. "But you've always been so adept with them and Miracles both! Whatever could have happened?"

"It's these damnable glasses, I believe. If I could fight without them it wouldn't be a problem, but as it stands…" Astaire continued, explaining the oddities of the other world to Sieglinde as best he could.

From afar, Naoto kept a close eye on both of them. The unspeakably uneasy feeling she'd had earlier had failed to subside, and watching Sieglinde in particular seemed to amplify it all the more. For much longer than she'd care to admit, most of the downtime outside combat had been spent simply trying to figure it out.

"Goodness, that sounds positively frightful!" Sieglinde shuddered at Astaire's recounting of events past, huddling her arms in closer to her body. However, shortly afterward a bolt of inspiration seemed to conduct through her armour as she leapt to attention. "Sir Astaire, I believe I have a solution!" She chirped, offloading her shield to her back as she began fidgeting with one of the many small pouches outlining her armour.

Armoured fingers working deftly, they at last produced what Sieglinde had been looking for. With a satisfied hum, she held a polished silver ring between her thumb and index finger. One which, even after squinting at it, Astaire didn't recognise. "This is…?"

"A ring I happened upon in the Archives after you saved me! Go on, give it a try!" Sieglinde said as she planted the ring in Astaire's palm.

_White Seance Ring_

_A divine ring entrusted to the head bishop of the Way of White and apostle to Allfather Lloyd, uncle to Lord Gwyn._

_It grants additional attunement slots._

Immediately, Astaire's expression brightened. "Gwyn's Beard, this just might do it! Surely I'll be able to use _something_ with this!" He quickly slipped off a gauntlet before slipping on the ring, his mind immediately awash with memories of the myriad mystic arts he'd learned of in his travels.

Of which he could only choose one.

_"Additional attunement slots, my arm. I suppose one will have to do."_ Astaire groaned internally.

Lo and behold, there it was again. Naoto's mind began racing as Astaire adjusted the ring on his finger. Something wasn't right. Something about _that ring_ wasn't right. But what in heaven's name was it? It was just some enchanted accessory, picked up in another world by…

...Wait a minute.

Just as her train of thought began to leave the station properly, Naoto's attention was cruelly diverted. "Finally, another way outta this dump!" Kanji called out, his face quite literally lighting up at the sight of another passageway out of the tower.

"Ugh… This had better be the last one, or I'm going to be beary upset! My poor Teddie legs are about to give out…" Teddie complained.

Nobody's mood was improved as Rise let out a nervous laugh from behind, Kouzeon's visor placed over her eyes. "You, uh… you guys aren't going to like this."

This was, as Kanji, Yosuke, Chie, and possibly everyone else in the group might've put it, _complete fucking bullshit._ Bullshit with an extra scoop of "Screw You" cream and a little "Eat Crap" cherry on top.

The passageway had indeed led outside again, always a good start. Up the following flight of stairs had even brought them to what seemed to be the top of Sen's Fortress proper, even better!

That was precisely where any semblance of 'good' had decided to pirouette off the tower and wave goodbye to everyone as it went.

Standing before the team was a steep incline. To Naoto's mind, it looked much like a giant, conical ant mound, with flattened paths spiralling up towards the top, where a sheer wall of white fog blocked the entrance to what looked like another, thinner tower, covered in moss and vines.

Had the paths been for walking, it mightn't have been too bad.

"Well, guess that explains where that boulder came from earlier." Rise said to Astaire as their heads simultaneously followed one of many, _many_ boulders down its curved path, disappearing into a hole at the end and presumably heading to somewhere in the tower.

The immense rumble underfoot, owed to the veritable stampede of spiralling boulders, shook everyone to their core. Given the best solution appeared to be 'gun it and hope you don't get flattened', nobody was quick to lead the charge.

"How peculiar. They were never that small the first time." Astaire remarked, vividly remembering running from boulders that were roughly twice as big as those before them now. "I doubt it'll make outrunning them any easier, though…" He mused further, rubbing his chin.

In any case, there was only one way to find out. Astaire broke into a sprint and charged towards the first path, aiming for the other side. If it was anything like the pendulums, the sensible approach would have been to leap across immediately after one boulder had rolled by.

A flash of weathered black steel passed his field of vision, prompting his desperate leap forward and out of harm's way. Perfect. Flawless. Couldn't have gone-

Sparks were cast to the ground as another boulder flew by, scraping the heels of Astaire's greaves mid-leap.

Long having since calculated the optimal method of hopping through pendulums and their ilk, Naoto's face paled a shade at the sight. He'd had this sort of thing so comfortably sussed out that swinging blades didn't even register as a threat. If anyone's timing was going to be perfect, it was his. To be sure, it _had_ been perfect.

And if he'd been anything less, his leg would've been snapped like a twig. "Senpai… I'm unsure as to how good of an idea this actually is." She began, keeping her tone neutral. "The chances of everyone getting through unharmed appear notably low at a glance."

Her sensible assessment was immediately disregarded as Chie sprinted towards the path and leapt into the air, vaulting over an oncoming boulder with ease and landing confidently on the other side, spinning around with a flourish. "Big deal! If we can't get past 'em, we just gotta get over them instead!"

"Are you for real?! Not everyone's got muscle-y kung-fu legs like you do, Chie! How the heck do you expect someone wearing armour like _that-"_ Yosuke paused to jab a finger in Sieglinde's direction. "-to pull off a stunt like _that?!"_

Chie's glance flitted between her legs and Yosuke as her face immediately reddened. "M-My legs are _NOT_ muscle-y _,_ you ass! Come over here and say that to my face, I dare you!" She fumed, prompting Astaire to take a few cautious steps away from her.

"That's my point, beef-for-brains! If I can't, like hell is anyone else gonna be able to!" Yosuke shouted back, secretly thankful that several tonnes of deadly rolling steel separated him and the girl looking ready to rip his lungs out through his nose. "We need something that'll be easy enough for _everyone,_ not just you!"

Rubbing his chin as if to wind the cogitating cogs in his head, Yu passed his gaze around the Team. _"Something easy for everyone. Something everyone can do."_ He pondered. Did such a method exist? Something that spry, nimble Yosuke could do as well as someone like Sieglinde or Kanji?

At the thought of their names, Yu paused. Sieglinde and Kanji. Hmmm.

Maybe all he needed to do was look at this from a different angle.

"I dunno about something _everyone_ can do…" Yu spoke up, one eyebrow raised. "...But what about something that can be _done_ to everyone?" From the swathe of curious glances and tilted heads he received, Yu knew to continue. "Sieglinde-san, do you think you could do what Astaire-san just did?"

"Certainly. It'd take more than a few boulders to stop a knight of Catarina!" She said proudly.

Part two of the plan was sorted, then. "Great. Kanji?" Yu moved on.

Kanji waved his free hand in front of himself. "No harm, Senpai, but you're off your frickin' rocker if you think I'm pulling _that_ off." He said, motioning his head towards Chie, Astaire, and imminent rolling death.

"That's not what I was going to ask you. How good of a throwing arm do you think you have?"

* * *

"Away you _go!"_ Sieglinde heaved as she and Kanji's interlocked hands flew up and sent Yukiko skyward with a yelp, arcing above the treacherous boulder parade with feet to spare.

On the other side, Chie awaited with open arms. "Hold on Yukiko, I've got you!" She shouted reassuringly, even though doing so didn't seem to ease the terrified look on Yukiko's face. The look remained, even after Chie skillfully broke her fall and wrapped her arms around her, if only to keep her from staggering backwards. "See? That wasn't so bad, right? Send over the next one, Senpai!" Chie hollered, placing her first, terrified friend beside her.

There seemed to be some debate over who was going next, with everyone glancing amongst each other and _volunteering_ that anyone else but themselves go next. After some time, it seemed that most of the gazes lingered on Yosuke. "Looks like he's next." Astaire guessed correctly.

True enough, the sound of rumbling boulders was overtaken by Yosuke's girlish screams as he was boosted into the air, limbs flailing wildly.

" _You_ catch him." Chie hissed angrily to Astaire, taking a generous few steps to the side.

"W-What?! Why don't you-?!" Astaire began, only to be interrupted as Yosuke crashed into him head-first, toppling them both to the ground in a pained, groaning heap. The impact winded him, even through his armour.

Not as much as it winded Yosuke, though. "You _had_ to be wearing armour. Couldn't have wrapped yourself in pillows and bubble wrap before we came in or anything, oh _nooo."_ Yosuke moaned as he rolled off Astaire and onto his back, clutching his midriff in pain.

After gleefully soaking in Yosuke's misfortune, Chie cupped her hands together and called out. "Hey, Rise-chan's coming over next, look sharp!" Saying it almost made her want to grin wider as Astaire immediately shot to his feet, eyes sharper than a serpent's tooth as Rise's squeals went skyward.

" _Astairekuncatchme!"_ Rise squeaked as she began to descend, falling silent as she stopped far too gently to have hit the ground . When she dared to un-clamp her eyes, they opened to meet Astaire's as he cradled her bridal-style in his arms. However she'd landed, their faces were remarkably close. Nerves, or possibly something else, coaxed a high-pitched giggle from Rise's chest. "Hee. Nice catch."

"Oh, sure. _Her,_ you can catch just fine." Yosuke moaned from below.

Rise teasingly stuck out her tongue. "Call it the joys of being cuter than you, Yosuke-senpai!" With a nudge and a tap on his shoulder, Astaire gently set her back on her own two feet and turned to continue catching teammates. "Wow, this worked better than I thought!" Rise commented as Teddie sent Astaire into the ground once again. "At this rate we'll…" She went to add as she turned around, her face falling halfway through.

Oh, right. That was just the first hurdle. They had to repeat this whole song and dance several times over before reaching the fog wall. It was enough to make a girl want to sigh in exasperation.

Sparks littered the ground as Sieglinde narrowly avoided getting demolished by one of the boulders. She paused to look up at their destination alongside Rise. "Thank goodness we're almost there! Shall we carry on?" She asked cheerfully, dragging Kanji off by the hand without warning.

The prospect of being tossed up and down like a ragdoll would've sounded worse if it hadn't been for two things.

Firstly, Astaire was the one catching her. Sweet!

Secondly, the way Naoto subtly narrowed her eyes as Sieglinde dragged Kanji off was _priceless._

* * *

"Hey, Astaire-kun? Can I ask you something?" Rise asked, arms crossed and head tilted as she soared through the air.

"Ask away, Ms. Kujikawa." Astaire said mid-catch, his muscles practically working on their own after the amount of times he'd done it prior.

Fog wall looming closer by the minute, Rise raised an eyebrow. "If this is a messed up version of your world, what do you think is waiting for us on the other side of that fog?" She asked.

The answer not only came immediately, but it came from two sources in unison. "Easy. It's a Giant." Astaire and Sieglinde said casually as one rolled to the others' side.

Everyone paused for a beat as they shared glances between both knights. "Giants? Like, the kind that live at the top of beanstalks?" Teddie asked, brushing himself down after a less than ideal landing.

"The kind that toss and carry boulders, more like. They always did this sort of thing the first time around." Astaire said, readying up for another roll to safety. "Seems a tad curious, though. Giants are easy killed if one knows how, the thought of one being our final foe seems…"

"Disappointing?" Yukiko offered.

"Suspicious." Naoto added quickly, her eyes closed in thought as she set a hand to her hip. "If they're truly as little of a threat as you make out, Astaire-san-" Or as little a threat as one could be to a knight armed to the teeth, "-there must be some kind of twist, much like that Drake we encountered earlier."

Oh Gods, that wasn't a pleasant thought. How could one make Giants much worse than they were? Make them bigger? Make them resist every attack thrown at them, magic and all? The longer Astaire thought about it, the more he wished the Fog Wall were further off.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. One more solid toss from the other side and they'd be passing through it altogether.

Steeling his nerves and bearing a stiff upper lip, Astaire rolled over to the other side. The only way was forward, and that was that. Nothing to be done.

One by one the Investigation Team and their knightly escorts assembled in front of the tall wall of fog. Though it had been mounting ever since they had set eyes on it, the pressure of the task ahead hung heavy on all of them.

Yu was the first to speak. "Alright, we should go in with a plan." He suggested, glancing towards Astaire and Sieglinde hopefully. "Any ideas?"

"The hell are we supposed to make a plan for something we can't even see?" Kanji rightfully asked, rapping his knuckles off the fog and noting how it felt similar to brushing up against a pillow. "Shit's solid. Can't even get a clue about what's inside."

"Well, we know it's a giant, right? At least based off what those two know." Chie said, motioning towards Astaire and Sieglinde.

Thus stepped in Naoto. "In theory. Whether or not reality matches our expectations is another matter entirely. We're not in a position to assume anything." She said matter-of-factly.

"Well gee, if that ain't a load off _my_ mind." Yosuke chimed in sarcastically, rubbing the back of his head. "Rain any harder on the parade and you're gonna wash us back downhill, Naoto."

Yosuke's hand went from his head to his side as Chie's knee shut him up. "Give it a rest, would you? There's nothing wrong with being careful, especially here and now."

"Either way, I guess planning isn't really an option, huh…?" Yukiko said, looking at the fog wall with wide eyes, pooled with anxiety.

Kouzeon scanned over the entryway, but given the look of concern on Rise's face, it was easy to guess what the results would be. "I… I can't see a thing in there. It's all just one big fuzzy blur, I can't even tell how strong whatever's in there is. Sorry, guys…" Rise sighed sadly.

"Don't worry, Rise-chan! If we can't plan ahead, we'll just have to take it as it comes! Right, you two?" Teddie chirped as cheerily as he could, giving Sieglinde and Astaire the same hopeful look.

The look hit Astaire like a bolt from a crossbow. It sought assurance, or comfort, or anything which might lift anybody's spirits even slightly. The tower was dangerous. Upgraded weapons, past experience, supernatural, otherworldly powers, all of it did little to lessen the fact that whatever awaited them could very well end all their lives at once.

If such a situation could give such a competent team any manner of pause, it didn't usually bode well for anyone else.

"Right, Teddie." Astaire said with a confident smile, turning towards the fog. "We'll lead the way. That should keep whatever's inside focused on us instead of you lot." He said, outstretching his hand as it faded through the wall.

Forget planning. Sprinting headlong into danger was what a knight did best.

* * *

The fog breached, everyone soon found themselves face to face with a wide, steep set of stairs hewn out of stone. No enemies in sight so far. Amidst groans about having _more goddamn stairs to climb,_ everyone proceeded regardless.

Before long, the end of the staircase was in sight. The sound of boulders hitting off the ground and rolling down towards the outside became louder the further everyone proceeded. There was no doubt about it. If it wasn't a Giant, Astaire swore he'd eat his coat.

"I'll tell you now, Giants are an oafish lot. If you can avoid their stamping and punching, getting behind one should lend you enough time to strike." Astaire warned everyone as he approached the final few steps. "Get between their legs, that's the trick. Wait for them to move, that way you ca-"

The moment Astaire's foot touched the final step, an explosion of fire and sound violently launched him back, soaring high over the heads of everyone behind him on the stairs as he went limp like a ragdoll.

"What the-?! What the shit was that?! Senpai?!" Kanji yelled fearfully, watching Astaire disappear behind them. The want to run after him was fended off by the shock of what had just happened.

Suddenly saturated with adrenaline, Yu quickly shoved past Sieglinde on the stairs and sprinted for the top. The smell of smoke and gunpowder filled his nostrils and he stopped to stand where Astaire had stood, quickly assessing his surroundings.

The stairway opened up to a much, _much_ larger room, larger than the tower had looked from the outside, cylindrical and covered in moss. Large pillars supported the structure, leading up to an imposingly tall elevated platform at the end of the chamber. From a cursory assessment, a pair of pathways, curling up and around the outside of the chamber, looked to be the only way up.

And from the looks of things, up was where they were going. Perched upon the higher level, cracking its knuckles and grunting primitively, was a Giant, laden with thick, ancient looking plated armour and a thick iron mask. "Astaire-san was right, it's a Giant! Team, we need to-!" Yu began, only before the blitz of rapid movement caught his attention.

Oafish, he'd said. Slow and sluggish. Easily dealt with.

But there was an exception to every rule.

The Giant shot around and quickly grabbed at the pile of half-sized boulders behind it, tossing three of them into the air. Even more quickly, it swung back around to bear down on Yu and his team, catching the boulders and juggling them as if they weighed nothing at all.

Before Yu could even begin to issue new commands, one of the boulders shot out of formation, bolting down like a metal crack of lightning which exploded on Yu's left side, throwing him behind one of the supporting pillars.

Muffled sounds of concerned yelling and further explosions rattled around in Yu's head as he slowly regained his hearing. As his clarity of sound returned, so too did his clarity of thought.

The Giant had thrown so quickly that he hadn't even seen it move. And it was tossing exploding boulders as if they were goddamned baseballs.

No matter what angle he assessed it from, no matter how frantically he tried to formulate a plan, one thought seared itself into the forefront of Yu's mind.

This could very well kill them all.


	17. Steel Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An arduous battle, a last goodbye, and an internal struggle.

Reality returned to Astaire as a muddled, foggy mess, needled with pain and fatigue.

Splayed out across the stone steps, only the distant sound of thunderous explosions kept him conscious. The sound of metallic shrapnel skittering downstairs to meet him, along the miniscule stone particles they brought with them, littered the background.

His comrades needed him. _Rise_ needed him. And yet his body refused to get up. Battered, bruised, and horrendously tired, Astaire's arm was the only thing that managed to move.

What he wouldn't have given to cry out. To Yukiko, to Teddie, to Yu, or anyone. _'Heal me, please.'_ One cool, refreshing wave of alleviation and he'd be back. But crying out, or even whimpering, proved too taxing.

Only one thing for it, then.

The Estus Flask dulled another shade as its contents passed Astaire's lips and rekindled the fighting fire within him. In a flash, he picked himself up, drew his claymore, and sprinted up the steps as fast as his armoured legs could carry him.

It was throwing boulders. Exploding boulders. Quick as they must've have been, it was still a Giant. That was enough to formulate a plan from. Gripping his left hand, adorned with the White Seance Ring, Astaire focused his thoughts. One attunement slot. One spell. He had to make it count.

Opening his eyes, his decision made, Astaire bounded from the staircase into the fray.

He was greeted with another explosion from his right, thus he darted in the opposite direction. Everyone had spread out and taken cover behind the support pillars holding up the roof, out of the Giant's line of sight. However, that only meant that Astaire was suddenly the easiest target to hit. Multiple explosions left everyone's ears ringing as he dashed and dodged to get himself to cover.

Rise. Had to get to Rise to make sure she was alright. Between the showering shrapnel and fiery clouds of gunpowder, Astaire caught a glimpse of a familiar set of twintails on the other side. Immediately afterwards, he caught a glimpse of another boulder rocketing towards him.

No, no, _not_ Rise! She seemed fine, but that could all change if one of the boulders exploded too closely when he hid beside her. He had to hide with someone else. Someone better prepared for the abuse.

From there, the choice was clear. Astaire galloped amidst strikes from the Giant overhead, the metal and explosions biting at his heels as he dove into cover next to Sieglinde. He placed his back against the pillar as his chest heaved in an attempt to catch his breath. "Good… Gods above… That's absolutely monstrous…" He panted.

"That's putting it lightly." Sieglinde said, chancing a peek around the pillar as the explosions came to a stop. The giant scanned slowly over its surroundings, keeping an eye out for any sudden movements. "It's an order of magnitude faster than any Giant I've ever seen before now. This won't be easy." She mused.

As thankful as she was to see Astaire not lying in a thousand pieces, it was hard to say that Rise's mood improved overall. The two veterans of the other world were in the exact same position that everyone else was in. If any one of them stepped out at the wrong time, they'd be shredded into a fine red mist. "No outright weaknesses guys, but that armour it's wearing will soak up any magic you toss at it! It'll hurt, but it won't hurt much!" Rise assessed, hoping her analysis would help conjure up a plan.

Yu's mind raced at a mile a minute. Casting ineffective magic would only serve to tire everyone out, but physical attacks weren't exactly an option either. The simple plan appeared to be 'Run up the walkways around the outside of the room and beat the hell out of it', but the team at large could barely move.

The whole situation was so damned _frustrating._ Everyone was looking at him intently, waiting, _wishing_ for a plan, but… "I… we can't risk it. Even if we move, we'll be sitting ducks." Yu clenched a fist at his side until his knuckles went white. He knew it wasn't what anybody wanted to hear.

"But we can't just sit around here all day either! What're we gonna do, run away?!" Yosuke called over, making sure his daggers weren't peeking out the side of his pillar.

"We're here now Senpai, we might as well bite the bullet. It's that thing, or us." Kanji added.

Yukiko debated peeking around to steal a look at the Giant, but quickly recoiled back. "There's no way all of us are getting up there unharmed though, and if Astaire-kun's anything to go by…" She motioned to Astaire, his armour blackened and dented in places from the explosion, his face scratched and bruised. "...We can't afford many hits, if any."

"And I don't think even Yosuke's fast enough to dodge all of them!" Teddie fretted, shaking in his suit.

And undeniably, Astaire knew Yosuke was fast. Faster than himself, to be sure. Outrunning the boulders on those tiny paths around the sides of the arena was likely impossible. There needed to be another way.

Fortunately, with his chosen spell in mind, Astaire had one.

Claymore disappearing into his box, Astaire retrieved a simple talisman and a broken sword hilt in its place. With an overhead throw, he launched the latter out into the open, where it hit the ground with a metallic _clink._

In less than a second, it was replaced with sound and hellfire from above. The Giant wasn't playing around.

"Have you a method of approach in mind?" Sieglinde asked from aside him, shielding herself from the shrapnel.

"I just might." Astaire nodded, turning back to face Yu as his attention was drawn to the explosion. "I'll make the first move and keep it occupied, that'll give you lot time to leg it up the other pathway!"

The first voice of opposition was a surprise to nobody. "Are you out of your mind?! Look what it did to you the first time!" Rise shouted, loudly enough to cut off Yu's own fledgling rebuttal. "It's almost like you're _trying_ to get yourself killed!"

"Better me than anyone else!" Astaire shouted back, breaking into a sprint as he went into the open.

As Rise reeled back to scream at him further, she stopped short of herself. To her horror, she came to a realisation.

Yu didn't want anyone to go. Him being him, he'd sooner wait forever than let anyone risk getting killed.

But he couldn't go himself. He was their leader, and everyone needed him. Without him, there'd be no Investigation Team.

Difference #6: Compared to Yu and everyone else, Astaire was expendable.

Rise's heart thudded to her feet as she watched him run out into the open. The shadow of another lightspeed boulder loomed over him. It shot towards him like a bullet fired by God himself. Even as the scene seemed to move in slow motion, its speed was incredible. All that was left was the bang.

" _FORCE!"_

Instantly, the boulder reversed its path and rocketed upwards, striking the Giant in the torso with an almighty bang. Three more bangs sounded out as the previously-juggled boulders tumbled.

The air settled around Astaire as the effects of the shockwave he'd emitted faded out, leaving him able to pump his fist victoriously. "Hah! Take that, you scoundrel!" However, he kept the celebrations brief as he retrieved his Claymore, tucking the talisman in his pocket as he dashed for the pathway on his side.

It took a moment for Rise to process what she'd just seen. Only Yosuke broke her out of it. "What are you waiting for, come on! We've got an opening and we need to take it, pronto!" He urged her on, running after the rest of their friends as they make a break for the pathway on the room's opposite side.

Yet as Rise picked herself up and ran, she became wise to the sound of armour clinking and clanging in the opposite direction. "Wonderful, Sir Astaire! I'll support you from the rear!" Sieglinde cheered as she ran to catch up to Astaire, her own talisman at the ready.

Some part of her might have continued feeling jealous, but it was loudly overwritten by every other part of her being _scared as hell._ There was a time and a place, but it wasn't now.

A low, rumbling roar shook both split-up groups to their respective cores. Unfortunately, Giants were resilient. A _thud_ indicated it had risen to its feet, quickly scooping up more boulders to launch with murderous intent. A cry of 'O _I, OVER HERE!'_ made picking the first victim easy.

"Yes, he's aiming for us!" Astaire said to Sieglinde mid-sprint. "As soon as everyone else sneaks up behind him, he's done for!" He spoke jovially as he reached for his talisman in time with the Giant's throw.

* * *

"People from the other world are frickin' nuts!" Kanji accurately summed up as he chased after Yu. The long, upwards incline was beginning to wear him thin, but they were keeping up a good pace, even as a barrage of boulders ricocheted around them. "Just a shame that the only thing they can't do is-" Kanji stopped as a boulder exploded off the wall a good few feet below them, as deflect by Sieglinde. "-is _aim the damn things!"_ He finished.

A curious grunt came after a notable lack of explosions. "No! No, no, no!" Astaire could be heard echoing frantically from the other side of the arena. It only took a cursory look up to realise why.

"Kanji, you idiot! We're supposed to be sneaking up on the damn thing!" Yosuke chided him as the Giant's attention shifted, moving into position to better strike at the Investigation Team. "Crap, crap, crap! What do we do?!"

The air squealed around the boulder as it shot off from the Giant's position, primed to smash Yu into pulp. Everyone's eyes widened as their breaths caught in their throats, their unified tensing up stopping them on the spot.

Desperation, augmented by a burst of adrenaline, saw Kanji throw himself to the front of the queue. He put both hands to his Greatshield and threw his shoulder into it. It wasn't going to be enough. He knew it wasn't. But he had to try. "Just piss off with this shit already, would ya?!" He cried, clutching the shield as tightly as he could.

There was a bang. An explosion. And yet the team remained unmoved.

"Eh? We're alive?" Teddie said, echoing everyone else's sentiments perfectly. Up above, the Giant recoiled once again, a cloud of black smoke serving as an afterimage of the fire it followed.

Dumbfounded beyond words, Kanji looked at the shield in his hands. Had… Had _he_ done that?

Then he remembered. It'd been from far off, and he'd only caught a slight glimpse of it, but he'd seen it. Just before Astaire had ended the Lightning Drake, he annihilated its jaw with a shockwave given out from the shield itself.

"Kanji-kun… Do you think you could do that again?" Naoto asked tentatively, watching the Giant begin to right itself once again.

Awash with a feeling he hadn't the vocabulary to put a name to, Kanji felt every muscle in his body rejuvenate at once. "Damn right I can. Leave this asshole to me, I'll knock him flat!" He announced confidently, putting his shield between him and the Giant.

"Right. Kanji, you lead the way, we'll follow behind you!" Yu ordered as everyone quickly picked up the pace again, bracing for another boulder strike.

Again, the juggling began. Again, Kanji braced, ready to act on the drop of a dime. Any second. Any second.

"Not so fast, you wretch!"

Blood spilled from the Giant's shoulder as a sizable crossbow bolt lodged itself deeply under its skin. With a roar, the Giant reeled around and turned to face it attacked, right as another bolt lodged itself in its chest. "Well aimed, Sir Astaire!" Sieglinde cheered as she peered through her binoculars.

"Well guided, Sieglinde! Let us move on!" Astaire responded by retrieving his sword as talisman before sprinting off again.

Inside, something changed in the Giant. Something snapped.

Throw boulders one way, tiny man and onion throw back. Throw other way, shield man throw back too.

The Giant coursed with rage as it leaned back and roared skyward. "Oh, crap, I think we pissed him off!" Chie shouted as she kept pace with Yosuke beside her. "What the heck's he gonna do now?!"

A question everyone quickly regretted her asking as the Giant made its first enraged move. As before, four boulders soared in a circle as they were juggled high into the air. As before, the Giant made its move so quickly that it was imperceptible. The newly-launched boulder shot out-

And _around_ the Investigation Team.

"What the…?" Rise looked in confusion as she followed the boulder's path. The Giant lobbed it at such an angle that it had smoothly adhered to the curvature of the walls, putting off exploding in favour of rolling around the outside. Slowly, its trajectory began to lower, aiming for- _"Astaire-kun, Sieglinde-chan, watch out!"_

A backwards glance was as much as either Astaire or Sieglinde could afford. Running on instinct, both of them dodged at the last second, getting blown up and down the stairs from the shockwave respectively. "Sieglinde! Are you alright?!" Astaire cried out through the smoke, picking himself up and ignoring the pain as best he could.

Sieglinde sprinted past him at such speed that it was as though she'd never been hit, although the blackened, weathered state of her armour proved otherwise. "There's no time! We need to slay this beast before it-" She paused to fire off a blast of Force, knocking another boulder away. "-before it gets any faster or smarter!"

There was one disadvantage to the roll-around shots, at least for the Giant. It required a shift over towards one side in order to properly launch one. That alone gave either team the time to prepare, but it meant that every step closer to Astaire and Sieglinde's side was another step towards a brutal, fiery end.

They were more than halfway up the walkway. They were getting closer. But they weren'tgetting there fast enough. Even from afar, Yu could see that the Giant would be in position before they could be out of range. However, hope wasn't far off.

Further up the walkway, extending up the last third before the Giant's platform, was a series of supporting pillars, their bases built on a number of small outcroppings from the main path. "Guys! If we can get to those pillars, we can take cover! Everyone give it your all!"

The run so far had been intense even for the faster members of the team, never mind anyone else. Naoto, Teddie and Rise in particular began to fall further and further behind the longer they had to run. Even then, the promise of a modicum of safety was a wonderful motivator. "Come on, come on! Almost there!" Rise gasped and panted, her legs feeling like pudding as she threw all her might into running out of harm's way.

A low rumble announced that the boulder was coming. Not a second too soon, Rise's shoes clicked off the main path as she flung her arms around the supporting pillar, holding on tightly as the explosion rocked the path behind them, the heat and sound overwhelming her senses.

But hey, at least 'Overwhelmed' was better than 'dead'. "Phew… I almost thought we weren't going to make it." Yukiko said, wiping the sweat from her brow with her sleeve. "At least we don't have much further to go, right?"

Yu peeked out around his pillar. The Giant's platform couldn't have been more than two hundred feet away. Well within sprinting distance, if they were undisturbed.

The only issue was the Giant's worsening temper. With every second that passed, it seemed to grow faster and angrier, bounding between both sides of the arena within seconds. Every time it looked safe to move, another boulder whipped up the air as it rolled down the pathway, narrowly missing the Team as they held on for dear life.

But the increased speed meant that neither Astaire nor Sieglinde were spared in the Team's place. If anything, the Giant's seemingly endless supply of boulders only began getting launched faster and faster. So fast, in fact, that Sieglinde could tell using Force wasn't going to cut it. "This is ridiculous!" She cried, barely able to move from 'Force'-ing. "We can't keep this up forever!"

Worse yet, Astaire knew she was right. He hadn't kept count of how many uses of Force he had left, but it reasonable to assume he was running on 'few' rather than 'more'. "I've… I've got an idea." He managed between casts. "Not a good one, but an idea."

The time between boulders decreased the closer they got. Soon enough, there wouldn't _be_ time between. Which only meant that Astaire had to work fast.

Immediately after launching another Force, Astaire's hand dove into his box and painfully, agonisingly hauled out Havel's Greatshield. If it weighed a tonne usually, the glasses' effect made it weigh a hundredfold more. "Grasp this with me, hurry!" Astaire called to Sieglinde, fresh off her own cast of Force. Huddling behind the sole shield, their combined might was just enough to lift it.

As he'd done with the Lightning Drake Greatshield, Astaire focused his intent into his equipment. Slowly but surely, he felt his entire body become slower. Heavier. Harder. More akin to stone than man. Soon enough, both he, Sieglinde, and Havel's Greatshield were coated in a thick layer of solid stone.

Even moving his eyes in their sockets felt arduous, but Astaire managed. He looked up as the Giant launched another barrage. Bracing while covered in stone was impossible, given the speed difference. Luckily, that was unnecessary. The boulders struck head-on, and they exploded point-blank. But neither Knight, Knightess, nor shield gave an inch.

It wasn't what many would've called a rest. In fact, some may have considered it _worse_ than running and casting miracles. But it was better than nothing. If nothing else, it was a distraction. Swearing he could hear his neck grind like stone as he turned his head, Astaire locked eyes on Yu across the large expanse between them. Slowly but surely, he managed a nod.

A nod which Yu returned. "That's our cue, everyone. Move up!" He commanded, stepping back onto the path proper and beginning to kick off into a sprint. That was- " _Shit, watch out!"_ -until another boulder thundered down the pathway, forcing him back into hiding. Frustration began to take hold as Yu thumped his fist off the pillar behind him. "It's getting faster. We're still stuck."

On the other side, the effects of Havel's Greatshield were beginning to wear off. Each boulder strike seemed to shed another few shards of rock off both the shield and its wielders, and each boulder seemed to hit harder than the last.

"Rrgh, I can't stand this! If we don't get moving, this thing's just gonna kill them and come after us anyway!" Chie said. Clutching her head in frustration before raising it, eyes aflame with determination. "Screw this, we can make it! We totally can!"

Her eyes were dead set on the end of the pathway, and it was a look Yu was now well familiar with. "Chie. Whatever you're thinking of doing, _don't do it._ " His warning sounded grave, but only half as grave as the intensifying grunts and cries of pain from the other side of the arena.

Goddamnit, she _had_ to go. "We can't just sit here and let those two get the stuffing knocked out of them! I'm going!" And with that, leaving Yu, Yosuke and Yukiko's voices of protest behind her, Chie darted into the open and made a break for the Giant's platform.

A telltale grunt, followed by a familiar rumble, put Chie on edge. "Try me, you big, lumbering idiot! I'll knock you flat!" She shouted boastfully. The second the incoming boulder entered her field of view, Chie moved with practiced agility as she leapt into the air, letting the boulder pass under her freely. "Hah! How do you like _that,_ you-!"

It was only when a second rumble graced her ears that the wind was knocked out of Chie's sails.

The giant had started on Sieglinde and Astaire's side before it moved to attack her.

And judging from the rumble, it'd had time to launch a roll-around shot before moving.

A turn was all Chie was afforded. It was too fast, too close. The pathway, too thin. She had nowhere to dodge. Even if she had, perhaps it wouldn't have been enough. Chie's breath caught as she looked death in the eye for the second time in a day.

" _PERSONA!"_

And for the second time in a day, Yosuke was on the scene. Takehaya Suzano-o punted the boulder from behind, off its intended course and over Chie's head with inches to spare, ramming the Giant itself head-on and knocking it back.

Chie stood stunned, watching the Giant topple back as Yosuke met her at her side. "Holy shit, that was close! Are you okay?!" He asked between deep breaths, rubbing the sweat from his brow.

Okay, she may have been, but Chie remained stunned.

Yosuke had just saved her. He'd saved her by _punting the boulder out of the way with his Persona._

A toothy grin overtook Chie's face as she cracked her knuckles and turned on the Giant as it got to its feet, looking down menacingly over the pathway. "Oh, you are in _so_ much trouble."

* * *

"Brilliant, Yosuke, brilliant!" Astaire shouted over as he flung off what little of his stone armour remained, boxing Havel's Greatshield as he retrieved his claymore and talisman. He turned to Sieglinde with an excitable look in his eye. "This is it, Sieglinde! We've got the bugger cornered now!"

The Giant seemed to struggle with having multiple Persona users suddenly realise they were close enough to fight back all at once. It was the perfect opening. "Let's not waste our chance then, shall we? Let's be off!" Sieglinde cried, running behind Astaire as he led the charge.

Closer and closer they drew. The Giant was still occupied. Closer, closer still. Still occupied. The end of the pathway was within reach. Just _a few steps closer._

The Giant reeled around at the sound of clinking armour, reaching for a boulder without hesitation and reeling back to launch it at the incoming sound.

But it was too late. Both Sieglinde and Astaire had reached the end, and so stood on equal footing with the Giant itself, each eyeing it up menacingly with their swords at the ready.

Not even a Giant was stupid enough to think throwing boulders at such a distance would do anything useful. Luckily, there was always a Plan B. Not far from the seemingly endless mountain of boulders the Giant had been pulling from, lay a large chain attached to an even larger steel ball. From the looks of the steel brace around the Giant's ankle, it'd been recently broken off. Swiftly, the Giant leapt over and grabbed the impromptu weapon, swinging the ball in circles as it turned back to Sieglinde and Astaire.

With their respective weapons at the ready, there was little doubt in either knight's mind. It was Giant Killing Time.

* * *

It was not Giant Killing Time. It was 'Avoid Getting Knocked Senseless' Time.

"Would you ever stand still, damn you?!" Astaire cried, swinging his Claymore at where the Giant _used_ to be, before it had leapt up and brought its makeshift flail down on where _he_ used to be. Fighting Giants was a cinch, but fighting one that could dodge as well as he could was proving a challenge.

Not that Sieglinde fared much better. Her deep, ragged breaths escaped from her helmet with worrying frequency. "I'm… I'm alright, I just- I need time to catch my breath…" She panted, doubled over in an attempt to get back into fighting shape.

Catarina armour might've had its benefits, but its weight wasn't one of them. "Don't even dream of it!" Astaire shouted as he launched a firebomb at the Giant, stopping it from taking any more notice of Sieglinde. "I'm the one you're fighting! Me! I'll kill you myself if I have to!" He bellowed, spirits lifting as the Giant's focus returned to him.

Astaire chanced a glance to the side. They still weren't here yet. They'd been close enough for their Personas to be in-range, but far enough to be taking their jolly old time joining the fight itself.

Well, he'd just have to make do without. Stalling was for knaves.

Astaire dodged over and over, consistently ducking just shy of the Giant's range. Finally, sensing an opening, he raised his sword aloft and dove for his opponent, teeth bared as he moved in for the kill.

But his senses had been off. The Giant's flail had only delayed attacking to charge up one strong overhead strike. An overhead strike which Astaire was in no position to avoid.

The solution was obvious, then. Just don't avoid it. With a cry of _'Force!',_ the Flail shot back towards the Giant, the chain tangling around its hulking neck. As the monster clutched and grabbed in an attempt to free itself, Astaire's face lit up. Finally, an opening!

Heavy, brutish strikes coaxed blood from the Giant's torso alongside a pained roar. Truly, music to Astaire's ears. Music that sang sweetly, even as the Giant unwrapped itself. The hit of adrenaline from forcing the opening still coursed through his body, riling Astaire up even more. "You're in for a beating now, you are! If that's the only trick you've got-" He clutched his talisman tightly as the Giant rounded up another shot. "-then I've already won!"

The flail continued to soar, uninhibited.

Astaire had used his last charge of Force.

Oh, _hell._

Like taking the brunt of a hit from a bullet train, Astaire soared back and slammed into the wall, falling into a crumpled mess at the Giant's feet. "Sir Astaire!" Sieglinde cried, running back into the fray and gunning for the Giant's leg. However, her cry had given her away. The Giant swept around and punted her with the flail, sending her rolling across the ground like a rock over a pond.

Rage bubbled over in Astaire as he staggered to his feet. No creature, from Lordran or otherwise, was going to strike out at one of his friends and live to celebrate it. He ground his teeth, he fought off the fogginess brought on by his impact off the wall. He clutched his claymore tightly in both hands.

But none of that could keep the flail from impact. It soared towards him like a shot from a cannon, ready to strike him head-first and reduce him to dust.

Just before impact, some unseen force shot the Giant in the side, sending it rolling to a messy stop in the centre of the platform. "How 'bout picking on someone your own size, asshole?" Kanji grinned, cracking his knuckles as Takeji Zaiten mirrored the motion above him. "'Cause you've been asking for it for a damn long time by now."

Thank the Gods they'd arrived, and not a second too soon. Yu, Kanji, Yukiko and Chie rushed off to keep the Giant occupied, leaving an unsteady, bloodied Astaire in capable hands.

Well, _Teddie's_ hands. "Sheesh, he really did a number on you!"

"You don't say." Said the bleeding, battered, bruised, and beleaguered Astaire with a hard expression. "I'd hardly noticed."

"Just hurry up and heal him already!" Rise barked, knocking Teddie on the top of his head before immediately going back to scanning the Giant's weaknesses.

Amidst whimpers and moans, Astaire sighed as he felt his wounds close over. Given that most of his effort was no longer being directed towards not toppling over, his thoughts began to clear. Examining the ongoing battle, it was easy to see that the Giant wasn't going down easily. Magic was dampened by its armour, and physical wounds were hard to inflict on something so quick.

The team was struggling. There had to be something he could do. "Are you seeing anything of use, Ms. Kujikawa?" Astaire asked as he attempted to peek over and into her visor.

"I'm still not seeing any elemental weaknesses. Even after taking a beating, it's still super tough…" Rise mused. "But… There _is_ something. It's not an elemental weakness, it's more like…" And there she dragged off, falling off into her thoughts.

There was something. There _was._ She could feel it. She just couldn't see it. It wasn't the sort of weakness Kouzeon was meant to seek out. But if she could sense it, it had to be possible, right? All she had to do was try. _Come on, try._

Her internal struggle must've been leaking into the external, because Rise felt the back Astaire's hand brush against her arm. "Don't let up. You can do it, I know you can." He whispered gently to her.

In that moment, it seemed as though all of Kouzeon's senses intensified. What had once been a broad stroke was keenly refined into a pinpoint-accurate vision of the Giant's physicality. All at once, the weakness became clear.

"The back of its ankles!" Rise shouted, whipping Kouzeon's visor up. "The back of its ankles is its weak spot!"

True enough, a look at the Giant's armour showed an exposed section of skin just above its heel. The only problem would be getting to it. Any time any of the team, or their Personas, made to close in on the Giant, it leapt out of the way with frightening speed. At the rate the battle was proceeding, it seemed as though an end would only come once one party ran out of stamina.

That couldn't happen. "Chin up, Sieglinde, we've got a target! Move in with me!" Astaire shouted as he raised his claymore to his shoulder, running for the Giant's right side. As he went, Sieglinde caught herself on and did the same, closing in on the left.

"Don't move, everyone! Just keep hitting it with magic, or else it's gonna want to jump again!" Beamed Rise's voice in everyone's heads, seconds before Takeji-Zaiten tried swatting the Giant with his sword again. With a grunt, Kanji abstained.

From there, the barrage of magic was immense. Bolts of lightning, fire and ice cascaded around the area, dropping the temperature and raising it just as quickly. Sparks flew as the elements recoiled off the Giant's armour, doing little damage, but keeping the beast on its toes. For now, that was all they needed.

Underneath the mystical cacophony Astaire shot around the Giant's side, appearing behind it at the same time as Sieglinde. From there, words weren't even needed, save for one from Rise. _"NOW!"_

Perfectly synchronised, both claymore and bastard sword plunged into the Giant's skin, a torrent of blood staining the floor on contact. But that wasn't enough. Winding up even further, both Sieglinde and Astaire swung their weapons with fullest strength, so strongly that the Giant toppled forward entirely, impacting the ground strongly enough to shake the dust and debris out of the tower's every nook and cranny.

In a last-ditch attempt to win, the Giant outstretched a hand towards Yu. If it was going to die, one of their order was going to die too.

That was, until a blood-soaked claymore pierced through the top of said hand, pinning it painfully to the floor. An act that was quickly mirrored on the Giant's other side, as a bastard sword rendered the beast completely immobile.

"Oh, I've been waitin' for this." Kanji chuckled, raising his shield as Takeji-Zaiten raised his sword. "We're gonna open you up like we're frickin' can openers." A vicious glint twinkled in his eye as he spoke.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Chie agreed as a similar twinkle ran through everyone's eyes at once, their Personas looming over them with immense, terrifying auras.

Based off how Yu alone had dealt with the Manserpents earlier, Astaire regretted not keeping ahold of another greatshield. He rushed over towards Rise and shielded his face with his arms. This was going to be messy.

* * *

"My uniform!"

"My sweater!"

"Pbbbbbbt." Spat Teddie as he cleaned the blood from his face as best he could. There were pieces of the Giant everywhere, and over every _one._ There were only three exceptions, namely Kanji and Naoto, who'd both ducked behind the one shield, and Rise, who was safely within an Astaire-shaped exclusion zone.

How anyone was going to explain walking back through Junes like this was anyone's guess. They sold a whole lot of everything, but they didn't fill any pools with blood, not even around Halloween time.

But for the time being, everyone's concerns moved beyond their eventual walk of blood and shame back home. Something was happening.

Getting as caught up in the battle as they had, nobody had taken much notice of their surroundings upon reaching the top of their respective pathways. But as the remains of the Giant slid down the walls, that changed.

Another wall of fog stood before the Team, slowly fading out of existence to reveal a large, dark door on the other side, a pulsing orb of light embedded in the center. At its side, a familiar pool of light dredged up and shone invitingly at Yu. A new save point. Excellent.

The orb of light seemed noteworthy enough to warrant further examination. Unfortunately, being covered head-to-toe in Giant viscera after fending off exploding boulders did little to encourage the spirit of inquisitiveness. For now, the sweet, sweet afterglow of victory was the only major concern.

"We did it. We actually did it, Thank god." Yu sighed, wiping the blood from his face as best his bloodied hand could. "Good work everyone. Especially you two. That was one heck of a beating you took." He said, motioning his head towards Astaire and Sieglinde.

The bloodless outline of Astaire's arms across his face only became clear once he lowered them, chuckling. "Oh, please, we're used to this sort of thing. Happens all the time where we're from."

"All this and worse!" Sieglinde agreed, matching his chuckle.

Even after being pounded with boulders non-stop, even after exerting every scrap of energy they had to take down one persistent, crafty foe, they still had the energy to laugh and be modest about it. Just to look at them, Yu could sense the immense determination bound within each of them.

_Social Link Rank UP!_

_Lust - Rank 2_

_Knight Astaire_

"But heavens, I don't recall it ever being quite this messy, I'll admit!" Sieglinde laughed, reaching around to the back of her helmet before it emitted an abrupt _click._ "Nor this tiring, actually. Not even Lost Izalith made me work up a sweat like this!"

Of everything that had happened in the Tower that day, from the Manserpents, to the boulders, to the pendulums and the Giants, only one moment surprised Astaire above all others.

The moment Sieglinde removed her helmet.

It said a lot when she risked dislocating the jaws of not just the males of the group, but the females, too. Had they hung any further, they could've swallowed watermelons whole.

Blonde hair, like spun gold, short and practical. Large, innocent eyes inlaid amongst smooth, porcelain skin. Facial features that would've made the finest crafted doll seethe with bitter jealousy. There was no other word suitable enough to describe her.

Sieglinde was beautiful.

"W-What are you all staring at? Is something the matter?" Sieglinde blushed, shying away from the wall of attention set before her.

Good Gods in heaven above, she sounded even cuter without her helmet on. It didn't seem possible, but it had happened all the same. Was someone so feminine and radiant _really_ a knight? It beggared the beliefs of everyone present.

Realising he had a girlfriend to not piss off, Yu was the first to shake himself free of Sieglinde's charms. "I, uh… just think we've become so acquainted to seeing you with your helmet on, that's all." He said. Given that he felt no death-stares on his side, that seemed to suggest that he'd nailed it.

"It's not the sort of thing I do very often… It feels as though every time I do, people begin to act terribly odd, for whatever reason…" Not only had her voice become infinitesimally cuter, but her mannerisms were like that of a completely different person. Sieglinde glanced off to the side, linking her fingers and twisting her upper body to and fro, all while her face gradually began to flush. "...Might I ask you all to stop staring at me now? Please?"

Dear god, she was like an armoured puppy. Telling everyone not to stare only made them stare harder. However, between Sieglinde's futile attempts to fend off everyone's attention, she and everyone else began to notice something.

She'd hidden her face behind her hands, but it was beginning to fade back into view. Her hands were fading away.

"What?! What's happening to Sieggy-chan?!" Teddie blurted as he flailed about, tossing blood drops to and fro.

"What on earth did you just call me?" Sieglinde asked indignantly, narrowing her eyes.

" _That's_ what you're worried about?! Sieglinde-chan, you're fading away!" Yukiko said in disbelief.

Everyone's eyes were transfixed on Sieglinde's increasingly-less-visible hands, which she waved in front of her face, expression full of interest. "Oh, this? It's nothing really, it happens all the time when I'm summoned to another world. Isn't that right, Sir Astaire?" She said as casually as could be.

"Under normal circumstances, yes, but…" He didn't want to say it. He _really_ didn't want to say it. "...You're not a phantom right now. Neither I nor anyone else summoned you." But there was no tiptoeing around it, as worrying as it seemed.

Even still, all Sieglinde did was raised her brow in interest. "Oh. Yes, I suppose that's true. Hmm." She mumbled, crossing what she had left of her arms. "Perhaps, since I don't remember how I got here, I'll simply return from whence I came? That would be awfully handy." She mused.

How she wasn't freaking out as much as everyone else was anyone's guess. The fading gradually began working its way up Sieglinde's upper arms, running up to her pauldrons. "Either way, It seems you're about to find out." Naoto said, cautiously flipping out her notebook.

"I am, aren't I? Ah well, such is the way of things." Sieglinde shrugged nonchalantly, affixing her bastard sword to her back and tucking her helmet under her arm. She turned to everyone with a sweet, grateful smile on her face, radiant as the sun itself. "It's a shame we didn't have more time together, I did so enjoy fighting alongside you all!" She beamed, eventually setting eyes on Astaire. "And of course, it was a delight to see you again, Sir Astaire. I can't imagine how, but it seems you've found yourself in good company."

Her words made Astaire feel strange. An unfamiliar, wet feeling began forming under his right eye as he watched Sieglinde fade away all the more, realising that this may well be the last he ever saw of her. More to the point, the first and last time he'd ever see her as a fully-fledged human. It only became clear to him how rare the opportunity had been right as it began to draw to a close.

From his side, something jabbed into Astaire's ribs. Loathe though he was to stop watching Sieglinde, for fear that she may not be there once he looked back, he diverted his attention. It had been Rise, looking up at him with a steely look in her eyes. " _Tell her!"_ She whispered.

Astaire raised an eyebrow. " _Tell her what exactly?"_ He whispered back.

" _How you feel about her, you dummy! You couldn't tell her because you were Undead before, right?! Well now's your chance!"_ Rise whispered strongly in return, slapping him on the back to hurry him on. The sudden look of horror on Astaire's face riled her up even further. _"This could be the last chance you get! Go on, do it!"_ She hissed, quickly exiting the realms of whispering altogether.

Astaire inhaled deeply, attempted to swallow his nerves, then straightened his back before striding towards Sieglinde, wearing the same determined look he wore in combat.

Inside, some part of Rise slugged herself in the gut. What the hell had she said that for?! Wasn't this, like, the complete _opposite_ of what she was kind-of-maybe-just-a-little-bit hoping for?! All the moping and worrying about him liking someone else and now she was actively _pushing him?!_ Way to shoot herself in the foot, idiot! What was she thinking?!

However, that part of herself was trounced by another side. True, the situation was less than ideal from her point of view. But much like with Kanami, and with Yukiko before her, it wasn't about _her._ It'd been about Yu being happy before, just like it was about Astaire being happy now. He had to tell her. He just _had_ to.

No matter how much it pained her to watch.

Astaire came to a stop before he leaned forward and clasped his hands on Sieglinde's shoulders. "Sieglinde."

Every hair on Sieglinde's head seemed to bristle at once as Astaire loomed over her. "Y-Yes, Sir Astaire?" Whatever send-off she'd been expecting, it hadn't been _this._

Beyond the two, everyone could feel the atmosphere shift. The mood was right. They were in the perfect position. Kanji glanced between both knights and Rise beside him, shifting uncomfortably on the spot. He wasn't actually going to do it, was he?

The pregnant silence that followed was finally split as Astaire leaned forward, catching Rise's heart in her throat. His arms slipped behind Sieglinde's back, just before he set his chin on one of her pauldrons, pulling her into a hug as best as Catarina armour would allow.

"It was nice to see you again. I don't know where you're going, but I hope you'll be safe, wherever it is."

Sieglinde's face flushed in an instant. Gods, the stares alone were bad enough, but this? This was overwhelming. Yet even in the face of being overwhelmed entirely, Sieglinde finally used what remained of her arms to return Astaire's sendoff. "Thank you, Sir Astaire. Truly."

Slowly but surely, limb by limb, Sieglinde faded away with a content smile on her face. Finally, Astaire's arms gave way once he was left with nothing to hold. She was gone.

"Dude, are you crying?" Yosuke nudged Kanji with a smirk.

"I-I ain't- Shut your face, damn it!" Kanji protested, raising a fist as Yosuke shied away.

Both sides of Rise flared up again as Astaire turned to walk back, his smile composed.

 _Yes!_ He hadn't said it, he hadn't said it! _Woo!_ What a relief! He didn't say a damn thing!

...But _why_ hadn't he _?_

"Gods above, is anyone-" Astaire cut off to let out a yawn. "-else feeling as exhausted as I am?"

As if his words had released some unseen valve keeping the adrenaline from escaping, the exhaustion suddenly hit the Team like a sack of bricks. One yawn quickly spiralled into eight more as the trek up the Fortress and the ensuing battle finally caught up with everyone. "Whew… Someone carry me back, okay?" Teddie moaned as he slumped over.

"An' you covered in blood? Take a hike, Ted, literally." Kanji grunted back, the effort from his continued boulder-deflections weighing heavily on his body.

Notebook tucked safely out of blood's reach, Naoto sighed. "As worthy of investigation as our surroundings would appear to be…" She motioned her head towards the door, light orb and all. "...I feel it would be prudent to waylay our investigation until later, Senpai."

"Don't have to tell me twice, my legs are killing me!" Yosuke complained, stretching towards the ceiling. "I think Ted might be onto something with that whole 'carrying' thing." He said, slyly sliding his eyes in Chie's direction before recoiling at her dragonesque leer.

"Good call, Naoto." Yu said cooly, shaking the fatigue from his head as he preemptively dreaded the walk home. "Everyone gather around the Save Point, I'll have us back in no time."

* * *

"Crap! I just realised!" Yosuke suddenly broke the silence as everyone trudged through the trees leading to the Statue Grove, tired to the bone. "We're still covered from head to toe! We can't walk through Junes like this!"

"Speak for yourself." Kanji said pridefully as he and Naoto walked at each other's sides, spotless.

Sensing that letting dried blood flake up Rise's room probably wasn't the wisest idea, Astaire quickly changed out of his armour and into his coat, bending his fingers back as he relished not being restricted by gauntlets.

A silvery glint caught Naoto's eye, courtesy of the ring adorning Astaire's…

Wait a minute. That was Sieglinde's ring. He was still wearing it. "Rise-san, a word?" She spoke out, leaning in to whisper in Rise's ear as she broke off from Astaire's side. "Might I ask you a favour?"

Rise gave her a curious look. "Sure, Naoto-kun, what's up?"

"I need you to keep an eye on that ring." She tipped her cap in Astaire's direction. "Specifically, I need you to message me and tell me what it looks like outside the TV."

Rise gave her an even more curious look. "Sure, I guess? You gonna tell me why?"

"If my hypothesis falls through, I shall. But I can only be sure that it will if you help me."

There was a familiar glint in Naoto's eye, one which Rise recognised all too well. She was onto something. Maybe even something big. "Don't worry, Naoto-kun, you can count on me!" Rise said with a wink before she jogged back up to Astaire's side.

Much to her surprise, the Statue Grove was surprisingly barren of new statues. Not that Rise had any idea what exactly caused a new one to be built, but if seeing Sieglinde off didn't make one, what would? At any rate, she could guess what _wouldn't_ make one. "Ee-yuck! Even after it's gone all flakey, I still can't get it off!" Teddie moaned, shaking flakes of dried blood everywhere.

"At least you can take the suit off! What about the rest of us?!" Chie similarly moaned, trying to brush the flakes off her jacket.

"If we came out looking like this, who knows what people would think we'd been up to?" Yukiko's brow furrowed at the thought. "Nothing good, anyway."

Looking similarly worried for her friends, Rise pursed her lips. "Hmm. There's gotta be something we could do. It's not gonna matter to Astaire-kun and I, since we're pretty much home already." She sat and drummed on her cheek for a second, then, at last, an idea! "Hey, I know what we could do!"

Everyone watched intently as Rise clasped her hands behind her back and leaned over in Astaire's direction. "Soooo… Y'know how you carry pretty much _all_ the things in that box of yours?" She asked, fluttering her eyelashes.

* * *

"Great, now I'm filthy, tired _and_ chafing." Yosuke muttered as his dark leather armour made walking through Hell seem more pleasant. "I swear he did this on purpose." He said, squeaking with every step.

"Maybe you're just wearing it wrong. Are you sure your pants are on the right way?" Chie suggested, rolling the sleeves of her gold-hemmed robes up for the umpteenth time. "Sleeves aside, this is actually pretty comfy."

"They're comfy, but…" Yukiko lifted the arm of her crimson robes and took a cautionary sniff, turning her mouth down on instinct. "...I don't even want to know what that smell is." Although if she were to guess, it might've been a cross between a waterlogged drain and stale rot. Where such a smell had come from, she didn't dare guess.

The only one amongst them who _didn't_ smell was, unsurprisingly, the happiest of the lot. "Mine smells like old books! Like an alluring yet modestly-dressed librarian!" Teddie said with a wide grin, skipping along as he held the front of his Maiden Skirt up.

"Anything's better than smelling like a fresh crime scene. Or looking like one." Yu shrugged as the bottom of his Wanderer's coat flapped behind him. "Besides, the smell is the least of your worries." He said with a chuckle as the forest began to fade away, taking on the more familiar appearance of the TV Studio accessed from Junes. "You guys have to walk through Junes like that."

Yosuke had clearly either forgotten or put the fact out of his mind, because his face turned as white as a sheet once Yu had said it. "Dude. No way. What am I gonna say if anyone sees me?! 'Oh, y'know, just cosplaying as a weird BDSM thief'?!" To say nothing of what would happen if his father caught sight of him. Sleeping outside didn't sound too fun.

"Guess you'd better start figuring something out then, huh?" Kanji chuckled, revelling in he and Naoto's bloodlessness as he stepped up to the exit TV first. "Personally, I'd get that squeaking looked at first!" And with that, he dove in and left a livid Yosuke in his wake, laughing all the while.

With a quick tip of her hat and a quiet 'Good night', Naoto was hot on Kanji's heels. Soon after Yu waved goodbye and set off for his own TV, only Teddie, Yosuke, Chie and Yukiko remained.

"So, uh… who's gonna go first?" Yosuke asked anxiously, backing away on instinct. He was soon caught short as a vice-grip, on par with a dragon's talon, gripped his shoulder. It didn't take a genius to guess who it was. It took even less effort to guess who was going first, then. "...Damnit."

* * *

The sun had long since settled when Rise and Astaire exited the TV, flooding the room with moonlight from the moment they stepped in. It was often difficult to gauge the amount of time that had passed from within the TV World, and the sheer scale of recent dungeons hadn't helped matters.

When Senpai had guessed that it'd be the most arduous task they'd ever faced, chances were that even _he_ hadn't known how right he was. It staggered Rise to think about, even as she threw herself back onto her bed later in the evening.

It should have staggered her more, really. TV-Lordran was a nightmare. It was quickly proving to be as nightmarish as Astaire had made _regular_ Lordran out to be, and then some. The only reason the fact _didn't_ stagger her more was because one question had been etched into her mind above all others.

"Why didn't you tell her?" She finally asked, after rolling the question around in her head for far too long. From the floor beside her, Astaire pitched his head up and gave her a curious look. "Sieglinde-chan. You didn't tell her how you felt. How come? You said you liked her, right?"

Humming thoughtfully, Astaire lay his head back and stared at the ceiling. "I suppose I did say that, didn't I?" A sideways glance at Rise's increasingly confused expression egged him on further. "It's not all that complicated, really. I certainly was… fond of her, at a point. But…" He paused to let out a sigh, sounding almost nostalgic. "...That was awhile ago. I said that I liked her, not that I still did."

"Oh, that's good." Rise said before she could stop herself. Her willpower had been so devoted to not sighing the entire hotel down that the filter between her head and her mouth seemed to have slipped. "F-For you, that is! Good for _you_!" Easy, Rise, easy. Play it cool. If ever there was a time to put her acting skills to work, it was now. With a quiet, deep breath, she continued. "That sort of thing can be tough. Getting over someone is far from the easiest thing in the world. Believe me, I know."

"You do?" Astaire asked, shifting onto his side. He almost sounded hopeful, but perhaps that was just wishful thinking. Rise nodded, and that seemed to be enough for him. Enough to coax a small smile out of him, at least. "That's reassuring. Now I know who to come to if I begin feeling out of sorts!" He chuckled.

"Hee, you bet. I've got your back." Rise said with a smile.

"I think I'll be right, though. It's not the sort of thing I did much pondering on before you brought it up." Astaire added after a beat. "Good thing, too. I don't think I have it in me to feel that way about two people at once."

Wait a minute.

_Oh, Gods be damned._

Thus it was Astaire's turn to shove his foot in his mouth, so strongly that he risked looking like a pretzel. As if his own loose lips didn't make him regret speaking enough, the way Rise suddenly stiffened, eyes fixated on him with interest, did the trick. Oh Gods, he'd done it now.

But she didn't speak. Didn't say even a word. Just lay and silently stared holes in his head, which actually felt worse. Like trying to sneak through the Tomb of the Giants and noticing a subtly-lit pair of eyes gleaming dangerously in the darkness.

Under her sweat-inducing gaze, Astaire felt pinned. He could only imagine what she was thinking.

He had someone. He totally had someone else besides Sieglinde. He'd all but admitted it to her face, and from the look on his face, he hadn't meant to do it. That left only one likely candidate, starting with a 'K' and ending with an 'Anami'. The temptation to grab a flashlight and begin shining the beam in his eyes for answers was _oh so hard to resist._

No, no. Bad idea. Bad Rise, stop it. That was the exact sort of meddling that she assured herself she wasn't going to do. Cut it out. Don't slap yourself though, you'll look like you're losing it. Nonchalant. Nonchalant. _Acting skills._

The sum of Rise's acting skills amounted to her throwing herself back onto her pillow to keep her face out of view. All that could make it worse was if someone took a marker and scrawled "PARANOID" across her forehead.

"Oh, that reminds me. Whatever was the matter with you earlier, during our bout with that massive Serpent?"

Did he seriously have to ask her about that _now?!_ Of all the times, he had to choose-! Nuh-uh, nope. Not getting worked up about it. Back to acting mode. "I was… I was just off my game, that's all. There were a lot of things to keep track of, and I guess I just got a little overwhelmed. Sorry." She ended lightly.

"I already told you not to dwell on it, didn't I? There's no need for apologies. Not even the most adept of warriors can be perfect all the time. Even Knight Artorias had his faults, I'm sure." Even if Astaire couldn't list them off because _who could,_ but that was beside the point.

Shifting around to peek over her bed again, Rise's face appeared wearing a small smile. "Thanks, Astaire-kun. For that little pep-talk earlier, too." She said softly. "I really thought I was gonna lose it back there, what with Chie-senpai…" She trailed off. It still wasn't easy to think about.

"I'd never let that happen." Snapped Astaire, his eyes hard and serious. That was, until he realised what he was about to say and quickly switched which side he was lying on. "...After all, seeing you saddened wouldn't do my mood any favours, either."

' _I'd hate to see you sad,'_ In other words.

It was a wonder that Rise's hair didn't catch fire as she felt her face light up like a Christmas tree. Holy crap, he was making this whole not-wanting-to-meddle thing _REALLY DIFFICULT._ This was no good. Even with all her acting prowess, Rise couldn't seem to calm herself down. She opened and closed her mouth for a response more times than she could count, fidgeted around in bed until her covers nearly flew off altogether. Nothing was working.

And then she spotted it. Set upon Astaire's finger, glinting in the moonlight, was the White Seance Ring. The one Naoto had wanted her to keep an eye on. Not that there was much to it, really. It looked exactly the same outside the TV as it had inside.

Still, the Detective Prince wanted what the Detective Prince wanted. Plus, it was something to focus on that wasn't _that._ Squinting at the light of her screen, Rise singlemindedly tapped out the message relaying what she was looking it, even if it wasn't much.

Down below lay an unsettled Astaire, in a similar state of too-much-thinking. The only difference being that he didn't have a phone to distract him.

' _Believe me, I know.'_

Did… did that mean she was over him?

Good Gods in Heavens above, what drivel was he thinking to himself? What utter nonsense. It was so far outside a knight's realm of concerns that not even a lift from a giant crow could hope to bring him any nearer. Complete idiocy.

...But it made him feel a fair sight brighter all the same, as idiotic as it was.

"I'm gonna turn over for the night. Goodnight, Astaire-kun." Rise said from above, her covers rustling as she nestled herself in comfortably.

A wise idea indeed. Visits from Shadows aside, sleep sounded wonderful.

How unfortunate, then, that Astaire wasn't tired. As it turned out, staying awake for so long had the dual effects of making one drowsy throughout the day and annoyingly lucid come nightfall. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

If nothing else, all he could do was try. Closing his eyes, Astaire lay back and tried to set his mind to rest. Focus on drifting away. Don't focus on Rise, or Sieglinde, or never seeing her again, or all the things he never asked her, or-

" _OH, HELL!"_

Astaire shot upright at breakneck speed, jolting Rise awake and bolting her up with him as she quickly flicked the lights on. "Holy crap, is something wrong?!" She was right to think so, anyway. Astaire was bug-eyed, clutching both sides of his head and occasionally rapping his hands off them. He looked frazzled all over. "C'mon, speak to me!"

"I forgot to ask Sieglinde what happened at Ash Lake!"

For a beat, all was silent.

Rise looked at Astaire.

Astaire looked at Rise.

"...You _idiot!_ " Rise bellowed back, flipping out of bed and clutching Astaire by the shoulders, shaking him back and forth. "Now we'll _both_ never know how that story ended! Darn it, why didn't _I_ think of that either?!" She realised, now feeling like an idiot of equal magnitude as she went about rapping on the sides of her _own_ head.

After a period of sorrowful shouting and lamentations, both parties kicked themselves all the way back to bed.

Well, that was one way to nod off.


	18. Spellbound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An afternoon of espionage, Tarot cards, and lots of makeup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter doubles as an endorsement for the Alfred Hitchcock movie 'Spellbound', which I highly recommend watching before reading.  
> I mean, you can probably follow along just as well without watching it, but it's a damn fine movie. You'd be doing yourself a favour.

" _...I realised that there isn't any real me…"_

The voice sounded just above a whisper, unmistakably spoken by a male.

" _...All those other Rises were just different sides of me, after all…"_

Oh, who was he kidding. There was only one person it could possibly have been. Astaire wrinkled his nose as he shook himself awake. It was about all he could do, given something seemed to be forcefully keeping his legs bent and his arms behind his back. Even still, he cleared the fog from his mind as he mentally prepared himself to face his Shadow.

All eighteen of them.

For a moment, Astaire was speechless. Eighteen copies of himself, each identical down to the last hair. All of them stood looking down at him as he found himself bound to a simple wooden chair, against which straining proved no use. "W-What the devil is going on here?! Why are there so many of you?!" Astaire spat as the ropes dug into his wrists.

" _So many of you."_ His clones repeated back to him in unison, their expressions blank. _"We are your shadow. Your true selves."_ The clones then parted in the middle, bringing in to view the only one with a proper expression, a snide sneer and an upturned nose. "Not that repeating it will make much difference now, eh?"

 _There_ he was. "Well, what is it, then? If you think seventeen more Shadows will get an admission out of me, I've got bad news for you!" He said, keeping up his struggle against the ropes binding him. "Go on ahead, beat the daylights out of me or whatever else you've planned, it won't work!"

Every clone chuckled a low chuckle all at once. "Close, but no cigar." The Astaire in the middle finally stepped to the side as well, giving the real one a clear view of what was behind him.

Namely, Sieglinde. Bound in much the same manner as himself, but stripped of her armour and clothed only in rags, her head hung low. Her breaths sounded weak and laborious.

Astaire's blood ran cold. He began to struggle ever more fiercely against his restraints.

"One might almost be impressed. Denying one Shadow is bad enough, but all of us at once?" The main Shadow said, venom dripping from every word as he slowly strode over to Sieglinde. "Gods, you're uptight. Is there _any_ version of yourself you can be honest with?"

"Stop this." Astaire protested uselessly, the ropes cutting into his wrists but refusing to give way. He could feel the panic begin to aggravate his chest as his Shadow drew closer to Sieglinde. "Don't you dare touch her, you monster!"

But his Shadow continued, unperturbed. "How did she put it? 'There is no real me, only different sides of me,' or something to that effect?" Seemingly from nowhere, the Shadow produced the thick, pitch-black blade of a Darksword, lining it up with Sieglinde's neck and forcing her to raise her head. She looked bruised, bloodied and beaten. "That rather sounds at odds with what you've told yourself up until now, doesn't it?"

It wasn't real. It couldn't have been real. But that didn't make it any easier to watch. Giving up on words, Astaire struggled and strained, his chair rocking to and fro as he fought against it.

"Oh, give over." His Shadow grinned as it drew the sword back. "It's nothing _you_ haven't done before. The sooner you accept that-" Finally, the Darksword rushed for Sieglinde's throat. "-the better."

At the end of his rope, Astaire clenched his eyes shut and screamed.

Opening them again showed that he was now free of his restraints. The Darksword occupied his right hand, the blade just shy of Sieglinde's neck. All the other Shadows had vanished. It was just the two of them.

Clanging filled the silence as Astaire launched the Darksword into the distance. Unable to contain himself, he slumped over onto his knees and gazed blankly at the floor.

He didn't know what he'd done in the past, but he'd done it all the same. Him. Not some other vague past version, or a Shadow. Him.

The thought didn't cease plaguing him, even as the sun began to rise.

* * *

"Hey, wake the hell up, lover boy." An unfamiliar, feminine voice said gruffly.

Whatever semblance of tiredness had occupied Astaire, it was rid of in an instant as he shot to his feet, the new voice putting him immediately on edge. Alert to a fault, he locked eyes with his awakener.

A girl with long blonde hair and a pair of intimidating blue eyes behind her glasses. She tapped her foot and crossed her arms, looking anything but pleased. "'Bout time you got up. Thought you mighta hurt yourself after rolling out of bed drunk off your ass."

 _What in the Gods' names was going on._ "Who are you?! What are you talking about?!" Astaire shouted, hand at the ready to draw a weapon. His eyes darted around the room before he realised where he was. "And how did you get inside Ms. Kujikawa's hotel room?! Answer me!"

"You _let_ me in, stupid. Don't tell me you don't remember." The mysterious girl let out a sigh as Astaire looked at her blankly. "See if this sounds familiar. You, drunk off your ass-"

Oh Gods.

"-hooking up with me in the bar-"

_Oh, Gods._

" _-_ making out for an hour or two-"

Whatever 'making out' was, but _Oh, Gods_ all the same.

"-then coming back here, snuggling under the covers and-"

"Oh _good Gods in heaven above."_ Astaire said weakly, his hand slipping out of his coat as it fell limp. "I- We- In Ms. Kujikawa's room?" He asked hopelessly. Hope which deteriorated even further as the blonde girl nodded her head.

He'd… he'd partook in such _rampant debauchery._ Behind Ms. Kujikawa's back. In _her room_ of all places. A thick veil of despair settled over Astaire as he took it all in. As if that wasn't bad enough, now the girl - whoever _she_ was - had begun laughing at him.

"I feel bad enough as is without you making things worse." Astaire mumbled, his frustration dulled by his shame.

Actually, now that he listened to it, something about the girl's laugh was off. It was higher pitched, more girlish. Almost as if it didn't belong to her. "Oh man, your face!" The girl managed between gasps for air "You fell for it alright! You _really_ fell for it!"

Before inevitably asking what he'd fallen for, Astaire's eyes widened in surprise as the girl seemed to morph before him. She shed her glasses, her expression lightened, and her head of blonde hair lifted off entirely, revealing a familiar reddish-brown colour underneath.

It was Rise. "Gotcha! Had you fooled, didn't I?" She said, grinning from ear to ear.

Astaire swore his jaw was ready to rocket to the ground floor. It hadn't looked like her, or even _sounded_ like her, for that matter. She was like a completely different person. "You- So everything you just told me-?" He fumbled, still feeling shell-shocked.

"Mmhmm! Totally false!" Rise nodded, stifling another laughing fit as Astaire's upper body went limp from relief. "Good to know my acting's still on point! I bet I could fool everyone back in Inaba as well, if I tried!" She giggled, brushing the wig back into a more proper shape. "Honestly, I can't imagine what you _would_ be like if you were drunk. I doubt you'd be _that_ bad, though!"

Looking at her, Astaire couldn't help but notice that Rise was dressed somewhat differently from normal. Black was far from the usual eye-catching, colourful tones she usually wore, and he hadn't seen her wear an outright dress before. "I certainly hope you have a reason beyond fraying my nerves for disguising yourself like that."

"Are you telling me you _don't_ know what day today is?!" Rise balked, quickly bringing up her phone and tapping through screen after screen in a flurry. Finally, she stopped on one and thrusted the screen into Astaire's face.

To Rise, it was a calendar. To Astaire, it was a pile of shapes and indecipherable symbols. Luckily, the more literate of the two keenly elaborated. "It's been a week today since you popped out of the TV! Woo!" She cheered.

Astaire blinked slowly as he tried and failed to parse out her logic. "I… I suppose it has been, but that doesn't explai-"

"Which _means."_ Rise interrupted, an edge suddenly present in her voice as she brought a finger to Astaire's chest. "You've been wearing that same coat for about a week now. And from the looks of it-" she worked a finger to the coat's neck and quickly pulled down, getting the faintest glimpse of peachy flesh underneath before Astaire recoiled in embarrassment. "-You don't even have a shirt on underneath! What's up with that?"

"It's the way I arrived and the way I stayed, is what!" Astaire explained as he fixed his coat tightly up against his neck, his face reddening a shade. "And furthermore, that still doesn't-!"

"It's shopping time, that's why!" Rise finally admitted, throwing her blonde wig back on. "An idol can't be seen just strutting about in public! We'd get flocked with fans, and then we'd _never_ get anything done!" As she affixed her wig and put her glasses back on, her face seemed to immediately sharpen again. "Which means we gotta go in disguise, _kapiche?!_ "

God's above, it was like a completely different person. "Alright, understood!" It felt less like portraying understanding and more like trying to tame a savage beast. It was only with his hands blocking disguised-Rise's terrifying gaze that something caught Astaire's attention. "Wait… Did you just say 'We'?"

Horror compounded upon terror as a mighty crash sounded off the table. A large box, emblazoned with 'RISETTE', gave off a menacing aura as Rise herself moved to flick it open. Inside lay more utensils, tools and colourful accoutrements than any one man's brain could hope to comprehend in one instant.

Worse yet, some of them were recognisable as being regularly used by Rise when applying her make-up.

"You'd better believe I said 'We'." Rise said with an almost sadistic, excited twinge. She turned on Astaire, smiling like a demon as she brandished her tools between her fingers, like a terrifying, brightly-coloured set of claws. "Hold still, _Astaire-kun~"_

* * *

Naoto drummed her pen off her lips in thought as she carefully examined Yu's text from a few days before. Which was easier said than done when the full light of the sun glared off her screen. "Madness, darkness, hidden enemies, ignorance and failure. Hmm." She swapped to cross-referencing the exact cards with the listings in Kanji's book, seeming to kick up more dust with each page turn. "That _does_ seem to corroborate what's listed here, but it doesn't exactly-"

"Frickin' winged rats! Go on, buzz off already!" Kanji unintentionally butted in, swatting at a particularly ornery crow who seemed to have it out for him. "Man, the hell is wrong with these Okina birds?! Gotta arm wrestle them just to sit down in peace!" He grunted, almost knocking over the table into the street as he flailed about.

" _Kanji-kun."_ Naoto spoke so sharply that even the crow knew to scarper. "I would appreciate your attention on this matter. This _is_ the reason we came out here, isn't it?"

For a moment, Kanji looked like he wanted to protest, but something inside him seemed to let the matter drop. "Yeah, sure thing. Dunno why we had to come all the way to Okina just to read a book outside some random café, but whatever. Lemme see."

Taking the book in hand and switching between it and Naoto's notes, Kanji tried his damndest to find a solution blowing in on the brisk summer breeze.

...well, a _solution_ was being a bit generous. A guess would have to do.

"Lessee, uh… Senpai said he ain't seen this weird lookin' card before, and it's pro'lly got something to with Astaire, so…" He paused, licking his lips in thought. "...Maybe it means all this is linked into him somehow. Hate to admit it, but Yosuke-senpai ain't wrong about all this weird stuff happening just after he showed up."

The timing was certainly noteworthy enough to extend beyond the realms of pure coincidence. "Perhaps you're right. Working off that assumption is liable to prove more useful than working off nothing at all, at least." Naoto admitted, glancing down at the table between her and Kanji with a pause. "It pains me to admit it, but interpreting something as nebulous as tarot readings is… a bit outside my field, so to speak."

"Hey, no sweat. Two heads're better than one, right?" Kanji assured her. Then again, the thought that _he_ of all people could help Naoto with anything requiring mental work was a hard one to wrap his head around. But hell, he wasn't complaining. "Anyway, workin' off what I just said… how 'bout the whole 'hidden enemies' deal? Any ideas?"

Naoto stopped to drum off her lips for a while longer before an idea seemed to strike her from the blue. "It could potentially be a relevant moniker for Astaire-san's Shadow, given it hid inside him before unveiling itself." She said, the usual keen look in her eye dulling slightly as she mulled over her result. "...I suppose." She added.

"Don't suppose nuthin', that sounds about right to me." Kanji, shrugged, watching intently as Naoto sighed and took not of her theory. Alright, now it felt like they were gaining some kind of ground! Eager to keep up the pace, Kanji poked his nose back into the book. However, he couldn't help but feel another issue poke him in the back of the head.

Nah, that could wait. It totally didn't matter. Totally didn't.

"'Ignorance' hardly seems like a specific enough term to describe anyone in particular. It's a vagueness on par with that of a tabloid horoscope." Naoto continued, racking her brain for answers.

Totally didn't matter. Mmhmm. No two ways about it.

...Then again, if it didn't matter, what was the harm in asking? "Hey, uh… 'bout that movie you said was showing today…" Kanji began slowly, noticing that Naoto's thinking-and-not-taking-hand froze in place as he brought the matter up. Ah hell, maybe this hadn't been that good of an idea after all. But screw it, if he lost his nerve now, who knew when it'd come back. "W-What time'd you say it was showing again?"

"Oh. Yes, of course." Naoto looked at her watch, seeming the tiniest bit meeker after the matter was raised. "It… doesn't start too far from now, actually." She said, trying to be rid of the inscrutable tightness that seemed to well up inside her. It wasn't like the situation was anything new, after all. She'd been to see movies with Yu-senpai plenty of times. It was normal enough. Then again, Kanji wasn't Yu. Whatever kind of difference that made, if any. Which was none. "A-Anyway, we should continue while we've still got time. On the topic of ignorance…"

However, as Naoto put pencil to paper again, she lifted her head to notice Kanji peering idly off into the bustling Okina crowds, as well as through the windows of the cafe they sat outside. "I doubt there'll be many crows having coffee inside, Kanji-kun."

"I ain't lookin' for crows!" Kanji didn't even make eye contact as he spoke, preferring instead to quickly peek behind himself. "'S more like… you ever get the feelin' you're being watched?"

* * *

"Keep your head down numbnuts, they're gonna see us!" Rise hissed, forcing Astaire's head further down behind his newspaper, gently enough that his combed-back hair didn't get messed up. "Okay… looks like Kanji didn't spot you. Phew. You think anyone else is on to us?" She whispered, peeking over from their bench across the street.

"I'd tell you if I could see." Astaire said through a veritable monsoon of tears, which rolled down his cheeks and left a noticeably light-coloured streak amongst the layers of fake tan on his face. "I feel as though my eyes are melting."

Rise took one look at him and nearly keeled over in her seat. "Oh crap, that's not good! You're gonna ruin all my hard work!" She said and loudly as she dared, whipping out a handkerchief and patting Astaire down, leaving soggy orange patches as she went. Even then, tears were followed up with yet more tears. "Jeez, you're gonna dry out entirely at this rate! I wonder if you're allergic to something I used… eyeliner, maybe?"

If it was a case of narrowing down the culprit out of everything Rise had slathered on him, Astaire guessed they'd be guessing until the sun went down. "Why are we even spying on Kanji and Ms. Shirogane in the first place? Even _I_ know this isn't what shopping consists of." He said, his eyes squinting thinner and thinner as the tears welled up higher.

"Because Look! At! Them!" Rise stamped her foot of the ground with each word, drawing a few puzzled stares. "It's so sweet they're gonna give me diabetes! We _have_ to watch! They're just so stupid-cute together!"

Stupidity and/or cuteness aside, spying on friends from afar felt morally suspect, even if they _had_ done it before. Amongst the bustling streets and throngs of people, Astaire's attention was elsewhere. Namely, on everyone else except the two people he knew to trust.

He was on edge when things were too quiet. He was on edge when things were too active and noisy.

Gods, the things Lordran did to people. It made peace of any sort seem like a far-off dream. Inside, Astaire knew he probably should've settled down sooner than later. He'd been amongst people often enough to where it should've clicked that nobody had it out for him anyway.

And then he saw him.

Through the tears, Astaire caught sight of him. That mustachioed, big-toothed stranger who always seemed to be nearby, wearing the same slim black suit as he'd had before. He slinked down the street casually, but it was easy to see that his eyes were darting about madly.

It seemed as though Rise's 'Death-By-Cosmetics' treatment had actually paid off. "Psst, Ms. Kuji-"

Astaire bit his lip to resist yelling as Rise's heel met the top of his foot. "I told you not to call me that when we're incognito!"

"Whatever your name is, look there!" Astaire nodded in the slinking man's direction, at which point Rise's eyes went wide upon contact. "That character has been following me for most of this week, and I'm not quite sure why."

Rise gasped. "That's that guy from outside Grandma's the other day! Did he seriously follow us all the way to Okina?!"

"Not quite. Look at him." Astaire wiped and narrowed his eyes, tracing the suited man's path. "He's gawking all over the place, not at us. I think your disguises might have given him the slip." Which was impressive in and of itself, considering he was still wearing his coat. "But if that's the case…"

"He knows roughly where we are, but not exactly?" Rise guessed. "That's like… half-following, half-not."

"I daresay you're not far off the mark. I'd call that concerning enough to warrant bringing up at our next gathering with everyone, wouldn't you?" With that, Astaire leaned back as the suited man disappeared amongst the crowd, looking for a pair he'd never find.

Rise nodded before pushing her glasses up her nose. "He doesn't look like any reporter I've ever seen. If he's following you- or worse, both of us- he could be dangerous. We'd better- _shoot!"_ Interrupting herself, Rise suddenly panicked and forced Astaire's head even lower down.

" _Agh!_ Shoot him? With this many onlookers? Are you quite mad?!" Astaire grunted, rubbing the back of his head where Rise had clutched at his hair.

"It's not that, dummy!" Rise huddled in lower and tighter behind her paper, so closely that it was clear she wasn't _actually_ reading it. "I think I just saw-"

* * *

"Yu-kun? Are you alright?" Yukiko gave Yu a nudge as they strolled down the street, arms interlinked. "You're being awfully quiet."

Tearing his idle eyes away from the Okina storefronts, Yu shook his head and returned Yukiko's nudge. "Maybe I'm just nervous because it's been awhile since our last date. If it gets much worse, I might start coughing up butterflies." He whispered teasingly.

Yukiko gave his arm a gentle tap as she sniggered. "Oh, stop… I don't think I've seen you properly nervous _once,_ never mind now." Honestly, what was he thinking? As if Yu Narukami would _ever_ be nervous. He'd hardly batted an eye for an entire year, save for when Nanako had been hospitalised. How silly.

...Then again, the only reason for that was because he'd been through it all once before. How he'd felt during the first cycle, Yukiko could only guess.

Time to bust out the stern voice, then. "... I'm serious, Yu-kun. If there's anything bothering you, you can tell me. There's nothing you could say that'd make me think any less of you."

As if she'd whispered a magic spell in his ear, Yukiko felt the weight of Yu's head lean into the side of her own as he let out a long-held sigh. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry."

Taking that as a sign to maybe stop clogging up the sidewalk for less lovey and/or dovey people, the couple quickly shuffled off to one side and took a seat. Two hastily-bought topsicles later, Yukiko sat back down and gave Yu her sweetest smile. "Now, why don't you tell me what's wrong?"

Yu chuckled half-heartedly. "More like 'What's right?' I feel like I haven't slept right in weeks, and it's only been a few days." He stopped to take a lick of his topsicle, the sweet helping to stave off the sour. "This whole thing inside the TV… I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't what we got."

"I know how you feel. Yesterday, with Chie, I…" Yukiko trailed off as she lowered her head. She managed a smile as she gave Yu a look. "Well, at least Yosuke has her back. I think he surprised _everyone_ yesterday."

Yu chuckled. "First good surprise we've had for a while." However, his flicker of a smile was quick to fade as he gazed listlessly at his feet. "Things are bad in there. _Really bad._ And I'm not sure what's gonna happen if they wind up getting much worse. There's too much that could go wrong."

As for what lay ahead, nobody could say, and the only member of the team who _could_ guess had been caught off guard a worrying amount of times in spite of his prior knowledge. It didn't exactly bode well for anyone else.

"Hmm. I guess there's only one thing we can do, then." With a curt smile, Yukiko wormed her fingers inside Yu's clenched fist and skillfully interlocked hers with his. "We just need to believe in everyone, that's all. We'll get through this like we always do." She said, smiling warmly.

She smiled less warmly as Yu quickly leaned in and planted a kiss on her cheek. The heat quickly sapped out of her mouth and into her cheeks, assisted by Yu's genuine grin as it was lit up by the sun. "If you're as good at pep talks with everyone else, I think we'll pull through just fine."

 _God,_ even if he was her boyfriend, doing stuff like that out of the blue- and _in public_ no less- melted Yukiko's composure like snow in her hand. Unable to offer a response beyond half-formed, embarrassed mumbles, Yukiko tried desperately to cool herself off by directing her attention elsewhere.

Which… actually proved rather easy. There seemed to be some kind of commotion on the other side of the street, as a young blonde girl dragged her much taller counterpart off behind her.

Funny, his coat looked an awful lot like Astaire's, too.

* * *

"They're not gonna give us the slip _that_ easily! Hurry up, Astaire-kun!" Rise shouted as she dragged Astaire behind her by his wrist, eyes fixed on Naoto and Kanji's respective backs.

Hurrying of any sort proved difficult as Astaire bumped shoulders with every unfortunate sod Rise aggressively dragged him past. He muttered apology after hasty apology, turning more heads than was liable to be healthy. More than Kanji and Naoto, his eyes were peeled for any trace of moustachioed strangers amongst the commotion.

"Where the _heck_ are they going? Talk about out of the…" Gradually, Rise's momentum dulled to a stop and her eyes went wide. The answer to her question lay in front of her, The Okinaplex. Movie central in Okina. "...way."

Shoulders aching from repeated impacts, Astaire's state wasn't improved as Rise's grip on his wrist suddenly tightened, almost to the point of shattering it altogether.

"Hoooh my gosh. Ohmigosh ohmigosh ohmigosh! They're going to see a movie together!"

That was enough 'Ohmigosh'es to be cause for alarm. "...So it would appear. Why is th-?"

Astaire quickly regretted not-quite-asking as Rise whirled around on the spot and clutched the lapels of his coat, dragging him down to face-level. "It'sadate it'sadate it'stotallyadate! I wonder who asked first? What are they going to see? How are they-?"

If Rise's wanton excitement over her friends' love lives wasn't enough cause for concern, the malicious glimmer in her eye as she stopped herself, as well as the toothy grin, certainly were.

"We're going in there after them." Rise growled intently, looking like a starving wolf that had just spotted a rabbit.

Feeling especially rabbit-like all of a sudden, Astaire simply nodded in defeat as the two of them made for the ticket counter.

* * *

"Two for Classics Season: Spelbound, please." Naoto said, keeping her voice and hat low. What an odd couple she and Kanji must've appeared to be.

Not that they were a couple. They weren't.

"Thanks." Kanji grunted above her, eyeing up the clerk on the other side of the desk for any funny looks. He passed a few notes across the counter and swiped his ticket before Naoto could inevitably protest him paying.

Were dates always supposed to feel as awkward as this?

Not that this was a date. It wasn't.

Both swallowing their respective hesitations,Naoto and Kanji briskly made their way into their allotted screen.

* * *

"Twoforwhateverthosetwojustgotticketsfor!" Rise blurted out, nearly headbutting the clerk across the counter as she sprinted up to meet him and just barely stopped.

Faced with the oppressive aura of the grinning, glimmering, starry-eyed girl before him, the clerk took a moment to process what the hell she'd actually just said.

"Spellbound, I think it was." Said her… partner? Boyfriend? Hostage? He looked as though his soul was being sucked out through his wrist and he'd long since accepted his end was nigh. "Please just hand them over. There's no point in trying to stop her." He said, sounding as defeated as he looked.

"And give us some popcorn, drinks and candy, too!" Rise beamed, slapping her cash down on the counter with such force that the entire building almost collapsed.

Jeez, as if the last couple hadn't been strange enough. There was little else the weary clerk could do but adhere to their… well, _her_ demands and try to put it out of his mind.

"This is gonna be _so_ great! It's like getting two shows for the price of one!" Rise giggled, clutching her cheeks as she failed to contain her excitement.

Astaire sighed. "At least that leaves me with _one_ show I won't feel guilty about watching."

* * *

Where the hell _was_ everyone?

Kanji wasn't at his place, Naoto wasn't wandering around solving mysteries, Yu hadn't hopped out of the TV and Yukiko was nowhere to be found. "Jeez, I hope nothing bad happened to 'em." Chie thought out loud, working contentedly through her steak as she gazed around the food court. Still no sign of anyone.

"There's gotta be _something_ funny going on." Yosuke said between similar contented bites, one hand propping his head up. "'Specially if you're the one buying steak for once. Maybe it's something in the air."

On instinct, Yosuke retracted his leg under the table as a terrifying _stomp_ sounded out from where it _had_ been. "I can buy the steak from time to time, you ass! Just accept it and be grateful!"

Couldn't argue with that. Steak was steak. Even still… "I'm grateful, sure I am! I just wanna know what spurred you into coughing up for once, that's all." Yosuke explained, getting ready to recoil another of his limbs at any notice.

And yet, Chie didn't lash out, or shout, or cause any kind of ruckus at all, actually. Instead, she began meekly jabbing at her steak and avoiding direct eye contact.

Who was this girl, and what had she done with Chie Satonaka?

"It's for .. Y'know, helping me. Back in the TV." Chie finally said after a curiously long amount of time. She looked like she wanted to continue, but the words simply refused to form without a fight.

However, Yosuke's did, luckily. "Huh. Really?" Or unluckily, depending on who was asked.

That helped Chie out. "What do you mean _'Really'?!_ What the hell kind of reward were you expecting?!"

"That's my point, beef-for-brains, I _wasn't_ expecting one!" Yosuke shouted back.

And right back to being tongue-tied Chie went. "You… weren't?"

"'Course not, idiot. We're friends, we keep an eye on each other. It's not like I _wouldn't_ have stepped in or something." Yosuke continued, focusing his attention back on his food. "Besides, that whole thing worried the shit outta me. I had to do something." He said nonchalantly.

Oh god, the tongue tying was worsening. " _W-Worried?!"_ Chie blurted as her voice echoed around the empty food court. "You were worried about me?"

It must've only then hit Yosuke how the situation sounded, because his hands froze in place and he ceased chewing his food. "Yeah, I was." He said a little less easily than before. "You're so caught up in protecting others that you keep forgetting to protect yourself too. Who wouldn't worry about that?"

What the hell was this situation? Chie simply didn't know what to make of it. And Yosuke's eyes were hidden by his hair, so who knew what he made of it either? But the atmosphere felt… weird. Uncomfortable weird. Uncomfortable enough that she'd do anything to alleviate it.

"I was worried about you too." Chie finally responded seconds after Yosuke spoke. "Back when Astaire-san went all loopy and had you up against that tree. I…" She paused to compose herself. This was _so embarrassing._ "...I wondered for a second what it'd be like if you were gone, and I…"

Yosuke's head lifted as Chie's sobs cut through the silence. "Hey, hey, calm down, alright?" He was out of his chair in a flash, though he fell flat once he'd actually reached Chie proper. What should he do to calm her down? What _could_ he do? Would she break his ribs for trying?

Deciding that an angry Chie was better than a sad Chie, Yosuke kneeled down and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him with tearful eyes and her hands balling up the sleeves of her jacket.

Holy shit, Chie was actually _cute._

Goddamnit Hanamura, focus! Now wasn't the time! Say something to calm her down, you dumbass!

"I'm not going anywhere. It'll take more than some roided-up dude with a box full of swords and knives to do me in." Yosuke assured her, giving her a firm look and a confident smile.

Of the many surprises to unfold that day, two in particular stood out among the rest. The only remaining question: Which of the two was more surprising? The fact that Chie Satonaka was cute, or that Yosuke Hanamura had it in him to be… kinda cool?

The question went unanswered as Chie dried her eyes under the light of the reddening evening sky. Mostly because they'd forgotten that one of their friends had still stuck around.

"The _outrage!_ The _gall!_ Why, if I knew where to go to sue, I would! This is unfair, unbear and everything in between!" Teddie bellowed uproariously, storming in to ruin Chie and Yosuke's moment as if on cue. "First Yuki-chan runs off with Sensei, then Kanji and Nao-chan skip off together, and _what do I find when I come out of a hard day's work?!_ Canoodling! Canoodling of every kind and colour!"

Both Chie and Yosuke froze in place, their heads turning slowly to meet Teddie's outraged expression.

Neither knew quite how to respond at first.

"And don't even get me started on Rise-chan! My last balloon of hope, adrift on a black and blue summer breeze! Ooooh, I can't stand it! When will Teddie's Summer of Romance finally be-?!"

Perfectly in sync, Yosuke uppercutted Teddie so hard that his head flew off and exposed his human body underneath, whose jaw Chie connected with before he'd even begun to lose momentum. He fell onto his back, feeling as though all nine of his bear lives - or however many lives bears had - had been knocked out of him in one fell swoop. He was completely out for the count.

Adrenaline still pumping from their combo-attack, Yosuke and Chie looked each other in the eye, tinted red by the light of the day's end.

"...Drinks at Shiroku?"

"You bet."

"You're buying this time."

"Damnit."

* * *

Spellbound wasn't exactly how Kanji pictured it, for being a movie chosen by Naoto. Black and white, he'd expected. Foreign, he'd been ready for. But there were less guys in fancy suits or deerstalker hats carrying magnifying glasses than he'd been anticipating. That being said, all the talk of 'Psychoanalysis' sounded right up her alley.

Hell, after long enough, it proved to be venturing down _his_ alley too. "Holy shit, that's not his signature?!" He whispered in shock. If it wasn't his signature, whose was it? And furthermore, why? The more questions he found to ask himself, the more interested he became. He had to know more. He _wanted_ to know more.

"I'm glad to hear you're enjoying yourself." Naoto said in one of the film's quieter moments. "I wasn't sure what to expect at first. I don't doubt that many would find my taste in cinema to be… an acquired one." A quick glance to Kanji's side, lit up by the screen, revealed a small, very defined smile on Naoto's lips. "It seems I chose wisely after all."

"Hell yeah you did. This is great." Kanji grinned back, reluctant to tear his eyes away as the film progressed.

He had to admit though, the romance stuff… it, uh… Well, not that he didn't like it, far from it, but the whole thing seemed to… shift the mood, a little. Got him thinking about different stuff. Less about 'whose signature is it' and more 'That kinda thing must be nice.'

…

Naoto's slender hand rested atop the armrest next to him, perfectly at ease. She seemed to be as immersed in the film as he was.

Could she…? This was crazy talk, complete friggin' crazy talk, but… could she just _maybe_ be… thinking the same thing?

There was a way to find out. One involving her hand and one of his. But holy shit if it didn't agitate Kanji to his core just thinking about it.

Pffft, what was he doing? He just had to not be a dingus about it, that was all. Then again, that would probably be easier said than done, knowing him.

Steeling every nerve and every fibre in every part of his body, Kanji braced himself as he slowly lifted his idle right hand, locked on target and preparing to strike.

"Holy crap, Kanji's making the first move!" Rise whispered excitedly, crunching through popcorn at a rate which suggested her diet was the furthest thing from her mind. "He's gonna try hold her hand! _Aaaaaah~!"_ GOD, it was hard being quiet and excited at the same time. Rise felt about fit to burst in her seat as she watched the tension ramp up to eleven, shaking Astaire by the arm as it did. "Are you seeing this, Astaire-kun?! He's actually going for it!" However, Astaire didn't reply. "Astaire-kun? Hey, what's up?"

Obviously, movies weren't exactly going to be a common sight to anyone from Lordran, but even then, Astaire's focus was scarily ironclad. His eyes were wide and unblinking, his mouth parted ever so slightly in a look of sheerest awe. This was an examining-the-hell-out-of-a-pair-of-glasses tier trance. Even then, Rise couldn't help but find his stunned look kind of endearing. Again, he was like a little kid, experiencing it for the first time.

And true, awe was part of it. Concern was a much bigger part.

The story of a woman in a fairly prestigious position, putting herself on the line for the sake of a potential killer who only partially remembered who he was, hit a little closer to home than Astaire would've liked.

Inside, he silently wished the ending would be a happy one.

As Rise continued watching Kanji, it was quickly becoming evident that he was taking _way_ longer to hold Naoto's hand than any normal person would've taken. At this rate the movie would be over before he even closed in! _Come on, it wasn't that hard, right?!_

...Right?

Astaire's hand _was_ right there.

...Maybe she'd wait until later in the movie. A few more kissing scenes wouldn't do the mood any harm.

More than a few scenes later, the mood sure as hell hadn't been harmed. If anything, it only ramped up, at least in Rise's mind. Every so often, certain lines were spoken that made her heart beat that little bit faster.

" _The mind isn't everything. The heart can see deeper sometimes."_

" _I couldn't feel this way toward a man who was bad."_

Her attention hadn't been on Kanji nor Naoto for quite some time. She'd long since stopped digging at her popcorn and snacks. The movie had transfixed her as completely as it had done Astaire. So much so that any sense of time had long since passed out the window. Only when Rise realised how… well, climactic everything was seeming, did she realise how little time she had left.

She could do this. She could totally do this. As carefully as was practical, Rise's fingers closed in on Astaire's hand. The time had come. Time to show Kanji that this wasn't so freaking hard after all.

...Wait, hadn't they held hands before? Hadn't _Naoto and Kanji also been there to witness it?_ Hadn't _THEY_ been holding hands back then too?!

This was stupid! It wasn't her first time holding hands, it wasn't even _Kanji's_ first time holding hands! There was no excuse for it being as hard to do a second time!

So why the hell was it so hard to do a second time, damn it?! What had changed, if anything?! Why was it so much harder to hold hands with him now than it had been only a few days before?!

Damn it, Kanji would just have to win this one.

* * *

"That was frickin' great! I almost wanna go back in and see it again!" Kanji enthused as he and Naoto walked out of the cinema side-by-side.

Naoto tucked her cap down as her eyes began to readjust to the comparatively bright conditions in the lobby. "My sentiments exactly. I was thoroughly enthralled from beginning to end." She said, her smile just barely visible under her cap.

" _Yeah, pro'lly 'cause I wussed out after all that worryin'."_ Kanji thought to himself before quickly changing the subject in his mind. "The old dude was definitely my favourite character. Felt like he had everything under his thumb from the start, like a frickin' mastermind."

He could've sworn that Naoto's smile widened upon listening to him, but maybe it was just wishful thinking. "Going so far as to have a favourite character? I'm honestly surprised it's had as much of an impact on you, given you knew nothing about it going in."

"W-Well, I mean…" Kanji scratched the back of his head as he slipped by another crowd of people entering from outside. "Guess I just trusted you to pick something good, thass' all. 'Sides…" The moment he'd begun the sentence, Kanji regretted having even spoken. His face flushed as he scratched the back of his head, as if the embarrassment would flush away upon doing so. But goddamnit, he'd nutted up enough to get this far, he could say it. "...No matter what you're doin', 's always gonna wind up more fun if you're doin' it with someone y' like."

" _YEEEEEEEES!"_

...That didn't sound like Naoto. That sounded too high-pitched, emotional and undeniably happy to have been Naoto. It sounded a lot more like…

Oh _son of a bitch._

Both turning around and praying to whatever deity was listening that it _wasn't_ who it sounded like, Kanji and Naoto both turned around to meet…

Exactly who it sounded like. "Oops. Busted."

"R-Rise-san?!" Naoto stammered, suddenly red in the face. Even under her many layers of disguise, that face was hard to unseat from her memory.

"You're not supposed to call her that." Astaire sighed, shaking his head as he massaged the bridge of his nose. It was only a matter of time until something like this happened, disguises be damned.

"Astaire?! Dude, what's wrong with your face?!" Kanji couldn't help shouting. Astaire looked like some kind of gothic carrot, his tears having left black eyeliner stains running down his smudged orange face. As baffling as that was, it didn't distract from one more critical matter at hand. "Wait a minute… W-Were you an' Rise spyin' on us or something?!" Kanji fumed in realisation.

Just as Astaire sighed and prepared to confess their misgivings, Rise batted him back before he could speak, throwing one of her arms around Naoto's shoulders. "Us? _Spying?_ Where _do_ you come up with this stuff, Moronji?" She laughed in a carefree manner, fanning her hand dismissively as if nothing was wrong. "Astaire-kun and I were just out to do a little shopping and catch a movie, that's all!"

"I see. I wasn't aware that film noir cinema was among your interests, Rise-san." Naoto said flatly, raising an eyebrow.

Crap. "N-Never judge a book by its cover, right? Besides, Astaire-san wanted to go see it too, so-" Rise beamed again as her smile felt a little harder to maintain.

"I wasn't aware that Astaire-san was so well-informed on the local cinema listings. Especially seeing as he lacks a phone, a computer, or internet access of any kind." Naoto continued just as flatly, shooting Astaire the incredulous raised-eyebrow now. "Not to mention your suspicious lack of bags for supposedly having gone shopping earlier today."

 _DOUBLE CRAP._ "W-We just didn't see much! It was window shopping more than anything else, right Astaire-kun?" Rise turned her head, giving Astaire a look of _'If you mess this up for us now I'm making you sleep in the shower.'_

Fortunately, or _un_ fortunately, Astaire didn't even get a chance to answer. "I've been shopping with you before, Rise-san. Please don't insult my intelligence." Naoto said bluntly. Any shopping trip involving Rise Kujikawa that didn't end with an armful of bags from every store entered clearly _hadn't_ involved Rise Kujikawa.

 _ **TRIPLE CRAP.**_ Rise froze on the spot as she began sweating bullets, trying to think of what she could say that would get them both out of this jam. They couldn't just leave things like this. If they did, neither Kanji nor Naoto would trust her with anything again. Think. _Think._ Two of her friendships depended on it!

"Alright! You got me!" Rise finally admitted, throwing her arms up. "We didn't _actually_ go shopping. We were out for… other reasons." Now, if only she could patch together _what_ exactly that other something was, then-

"Oh, you two were on a date. Okay." Kanji nodded. "Don' worry, we won't tell nobody."

" _W-WHAT?! NO!"_

" _W-WHAT?! NO!"_ Astaire and Rise blurted out at the same time, matched even down to their inflections. "I-It wasn't a date! I mean-!"

But Kanji continued, crossing his arms and swapping his glance between the both of them. "I 'unno. Runnin' off without tellin' anybody, lyin' about what you were doin', goin' to see a movie at the end of the day… Sounds like a date to me." He said, grinning and giving Astaire a wink. He knew that wasn't it. Like hell would Rise resist butting her nose into something that wasn't any of her damn business. But hey, if he and Naoto had to be embarrassed, they might as well have company.

And company they got as both Rise and Astaire clammed up. He must've made a pretty good argument, because from the looks on both their faces, neither had considered how date-like their circumstances had seemed until now.

" _The jig is up. We'll have to come clean after all!"_ Rise thought to herself. This was _the_ worst possible outcome.

" _A date?! With Ms. Kujikawa, and in public?! Are they quite mad?!"_ Astaire thought to himself. This was _worse_ than _the_ worst possible outcome.

In that moment, with those thoughts swimming around in his head, Astaire had an idea. "Please excuse us, but you're right. We _were_ following you." He said with a low, apologetic bow. "We noticed something earlier that might be relevant to our current investigation. We thought it would be important to tell you both as soon as possible.

Rise and Naoto's eyes went wide. Hot damn, that was perfect! "Yeah, yeah, that's right! We totally saw something suspicious earlier!" Eager to distract everyone from their previous line of inquiry, Rise looped her arm in around Naoto's, pressed their shoulders together and began walking her off in one direction. "C'mon, we'll tell you all about it! We can even hit up a few clothing stores on the way back!"

With both their date and perceived-date walking off, that left Kanji and Astaire to watch their backs as they went, trudging through the bustling crowds after them. "So, uh… She really was keepin' an eye on us, wasn't she?" Kanji eventually asked.

More knight than convincing actor, Astaire resigned himself to a nod. "She was. I apologise if we've somewhat dampened your evening as a result of our showing up."

Kanji chuckled. "Man, I kinda wanna thank her. I've been feeling like I was gonna explode this entire time. This goin'-out-with-someone-you-like shit's harder than it looks." He said with a wry smile as he gazed at Naoto being awkwardly forced forward by Rise. "But I'm gonna try an' get better at it. Just gotta keep trying, right?"

"Try enough times and you can do anything. It worked in Lordran, I can't imagine why it wouldn't work here too." Astaire shrugged. "No matter the case, I'm sure you'll get by, Kanji."

Smiles spread across both fellow's faces as they enjoyed the walk down the busy streets. A good dose of faith in one's allies was as potent an upper as any other.

Didn't explain why Astaire was still welling up with tears though.

"You want something to wipe that shit off your face?"

"Oh, _Gods_ yes."

* * *

A suited man in a moustache who'd been following Astaire for the best part of a week. A Crystal Lizard appearing seemingly from nowhere and running about in the real world. Whether they were linked was questionable. Whether they were good or not wasn't. "...and then there's that ring of Sieglinde-san's… What could it all mean?" Naoto pondered as she looked in the mirror.

"Hey Naoto-kun, try this on!" Rise said in her usual bubbly manner as she swiped Naoto's cap and quickly replaced it with a straw Panama hat. "Huh, what do you think? Perfect for summer, right?" She asked keenly, already making for the other sections of the store and lifting airy articles from their hangers.

"Rise-san, _please,_ this could be serious. Are you sure that ring was the same outside the TV as it was within?" Naoto said as she swiped her cap back.

Rise shrugged. "Sure I'm sure. Why wouldn't it be?"

Checking to make sure Astaire was out of earshot, which, talking to Kanji a few racks over, he was, Naoto leaned in to whisper in Rise's ear. _"Because it was given to him by Sieglinde-san, that's why."_

"Eh? What's that supposed to mean?" Rise asked, tilting her head.

Sighing, Naoto leaned in again. "Do you recall when we met that man at the beginning of Astaire-san's dungeon, and he claimed to have killed him before? Initially, I was under the impression that he was simply some kind of imaginary figment conjured up by that world, that he wasn't truthfully real. Able to touch us, yes, but not the same person who Astaire-san killed." She poked her head up again to be sure they weren't being listened to, then continued. "But then Sieglinde-san appeared too. Initially, I believed her to be a similar imaginary entity, until she gave Astaire-san that ring. If it was truly something purely imaginary, I don't believe he should've been able to take it outside the television."

"Wait a second." Rise's finger interjected as it poked up in front of Naoto's face. "Aren't Shadows born in the other world too? That never stopped Senpai bringing all the weird stuff they dropped to Daidara-san, so why should Sieglinde-chan be any different?"

"Because Sieglinde-san _wasn't_ a Shadow. If Shadows are born of humanity's negativity, at least they were born of _something_ from our world. But Sieglinde-san? She doesn't fit that pattern. She and the man who became a Hollow are complete outliers. But they're not solely beings bound to the other world either, as evidenced by that ring of Astaire-san's. So then…"

"...What _were_ they?" Rise finished for her, looking pale and bunching up her de-railed clothes in her hand. "...Do you have any ideas, Naoto-kun?" She asked almost pleadingly, concern written in bold across her face.

Unfortunately, Naoto could only shake her head. "I don't. Not conclusive ones, anyway. I'm afraid all we can do is wait and see how the situation develops." Only once she'd spoken did Naoto notice how thoroughly sullen Rise appeared after her little explanation. Her head hung low, her eyes to the floor. Suddenly, shopping for clothes seemed to have lost its luster.

Sighing to herself, Naoto reached out and swapped her usual cap for the Panama again. "...This _is_ rather fetching, I must admit."

Like she'd hit the switch to her mood, Naoto leapt as Rise pounced on her from behind. "I _know,_ right?! It'd totally suit you better on sunny days than _that_ stuffy old thing! You're gonna be happy you made the switch once we hit the beach with Nanako-chan later!" And before Naoto could protest having been invited to the beach without her knowledge, Rise was racing off further into the store to grab whatever else might suit her.

This… felt like it was going to be a long shopping trip.

* * *

"Nuh-uh. Nope. Nope. Not a chance." Kanji said every time Astaire raised a new item of clothing with a confused look. "No- you already picked that one up. _That's_ from the girls' section, dumbass! What the hell are you even looking at that for?!"

This was going nowhere fast. Frustration beginning to overwhelm him, Astaire finally threw his hands up. "I don't know what I'm looking for in here! Where's the armour? The steel, the leather, the chainmail? Even a Sorcerer would turn his nose up at such paltry protection!"

Frustration built up just as quickly in Kanji as he began to raise his voice. "It ain't for protection, idiot, it's for wearin' normally! You tellin' me you ain't never wore something in that other world of yours just to feel comfortable?!"

"No, I didn't!" Astaire bellowed back immediately.

Oh. Well, shit. Guess that bigass coat of his was the most comfortable thing he'd ever had. Any wonder he never took the damn thing off. Exhaling through his teeth, Kanji vented his negativity and decided to give the whole charade another go. "Alright, just… gimme a sec." He said, disappearing amongst the racks of the fabric jungle like a lone survivor.

Nary a minute later he was back, not only with an armful of clothes, but a bonus on top of that. "Alright, time to see what suits you! Leave it to us, Astaire-kun!" Rise said with a wink.

That wink seemed a lot scarier after the ordeal he'd been through the morning prior. Making sure to keep Rise well out of arm's reach, Astaire caught the first pile of clothes Kanji tossed to him, before he turned and pointed off to one side of the store. "Awright, changing room's over there, so- Oh, yeah, right." Kanji began before turning back to see Astaire had already changed. "Forgot you could do that."

Well, that would speed things up. All the same, Rise couldn't help but wonder what the security cameras would show every time Astaire pulled that trick in front of them.

After more shirts, jeans, jumpers and jackets than a knight could wave a sword at, something began to poke at Astaire's attention. "I hate to be a bother but, er… is there any particular reason everything's black and blue?" Which, indeed, it _had_ been. Every outfit handed to him had been, in one way or another, picked by Kanji to contain both colours primarily. Never one or the other, always both.

A fact which, to Kanji, must've been the obvious choice, because he looked at Astaire like he'd asked what two plus two was. "Wait, you serious? You two didn't pull that shit on purpose?" He asked with a look in Rise's direction, which she recoiled at in confusion. "Really? That's a hell of a coincidence if you ask me." Reaching into his back pocket to grab his phone, Kanji brought up a group photo of the Investigation Team, pointing particularly at Rise in it.

"Rise always had a thing for orange and white in the summer." Kanji explained to Astaire, bringing him in closer. "Orange top, white bottoms." He then pointed to Astaire himself, specifically, his clothes. "Blue top, black bottoms."

Both Rise and Astaire stared at him blankly. Until finally, "Oh, shoot!" Rise pounded her fist into her palm.

At least one of them got it. "There ya go. You've been colour co-ordinated the whole time, ya morons. I figured you'd set it up on purpose so, y'know, you both pop out more." Kanji shrugged. "Jeez, it's basic enough stuff, it don't take a genius to get it."

"Wow Kanji, I'm actually impressed! That's pretty smart, coming from you!" Rise said, looking genuinely surprised and, secretly, feeling a little bit pleased. Complimenting outfits, yay!

Kanji shrugged. "'S what happens when your folks run a textile sto- Hey, the hell's that supposed to mean?!" He barked, shaking his fist angrily. "You're the one that went this long without noticin' it, like you can say anything!"

Not seeking to draw any more attention to herself when she was _supposed_ to be incognito, Rise conceded with a sigh and a shrug. "Yeah, I guess I should have. Oh well." She turned back to Astaire, who suddenly seemed a lot more content with being given such a consistent colour palette. She ran her eyes up and down him and smiled. "I think it suits you! How's it feel to wear?"

It was a simple enough outfit. A modest, long-sleeved white shirt under a blue short-sleeved one. It was airy and light, and surprisingly, allowed the Bottomless Box to remain just as hidden as it always had. Punctuated with black bottoms and a pair of black shoes for consistency and boom, Knight Astaire had officially activated casual mode. "It's good. If it keeps the box hidden, I believe I'll make good use of it." He said, nodding thoughtfully.

Joyous to the point of glowing like the sun, Rise clapped her hands together. "Great! Now that that's one outfit sorted out, I know what to do for the rest of them!" She said cheerfully, disappearing in amongst the racks once again.

Wait, exactly how many constituted 'the rest of them'?

"I… think I'd better go after her." Astaire sighed, sprinting in a vague Rise-ish direction, leaving Kanji to himself.

Or so it had appeared. "Your knowledge regarding clothing is wider than I anticipated." Said Naoto, seemingly having spawned behind Kanji from nowhere and wheeling him around in shock as a result.

 _Jeez!_ Any wonder Astaire'd knocked Teddie a new facehole, that shit put you on edge. As the tension and shock left him, Kanji rubbed the back of his head modestly. "What, that? I mean, 's no big deal, just gotta know this stuff from time to time, right?"

"Even I failed to notice Rise-san and Astaire-san's unintentional harmony. Colour theory… doesn't exactly come up very often in my line of work, I'm afraid." Naoto admitted, tipping her cap down.

Was it really something to be so embarrassed about? "Don't worry about it, it ain't a big deal. Helps when you're puttin' an outfit together, but I ain't found much use for it outside of that." Kanji shrugged. Not like matching colours was anything to get too big of a head over.

Which Naoto _really_ should've realised, and yet her hat remained tipped, to the point where it almost seemed like she was hiding her face. "Given your… aptitude for such matters, w-would you- I mean, if you happened the find the time…" Naoto stammered. Naoto never stammered. The hell was going on? "...Would you accompany me here again to… to help me find something… coordinated?" She finally managed to spit out.

 _Holy shit._ Whatever Kanji had been expecting, _that_ had to have been the furthest down the list of possibilities. Asking that kind of thing in that kind of way, and being asked by Naoto of all people? "S-Sure I would!" Kanji belted out more aggressively than he'd intended, clasping his mouth as he noticed some of the other customers gaze in his direction. Way to not sound overexcited, dumbass. He cleared his throat before speaking again. "Y-Yeah, anytime. Jus' say the word."

Seemingly having exhausted her budget for words for the next week, Naoto affixed her hat and gave Kanji a quick, stiff nod of affirmation.

...Well, now things felt plain awkward. "We- uh, should probably catch up with those other two. Gotta make sure we don't lose 'em before headin' back, r-right?" Kanji tried to say, internally beating the shit out of himself for having tripped up at the end. Maybe he should've pulled a Naoto and just kept quiet himself.

With another quick nod, Naoto all too keenly strode off in a hurry, her arms stiff as they swung at her sides, as though wading through the swamp of sheer embarrassment and awkwardness that she'd haphazardly thrown herself and Kanji into.

* * *

"There's one… and two… and three…" Rise counted off as she retrieved her numerous shopping bags from Astaire's fully outstretched arm, placing them neatly on the table overlooking her room's city view. "...and seven! Alright, swap sides!" Rise commanded, spinning Astaire around on the spot and beginning to unhook the _rest_ of her bags from his other arm.

"If this is what your shopping trips usually wind up like, I can't blame Ms. Shirogane for seeing right through us." Astaire said as he rolled his free arm around in the socket to work the stiffness out. "Are you really going to wear all this?"

"Of course not!, some of this is for you too!" Rise chirped, holding up one of the many blue, loose-fitting, easy-to-hide-a-box-in garments she'd made off with. "Hope you're fond of black and blue~!" She sing-songed as she went back to her organising.

At last, Astaire's other arm was freed, leaving him able to stretch about to his heart's content. "I believe I am, actually. It's said that Knight Artorias' armour was a parade of black and blue as well. I can't think of a better combination." He said with a grin.

As though the bags had been the only thing keeping him awake, tiredness rammed nto Astaire like a bullet train as he let out a yawn. Evidently, being dragged around by Rise all day and having to carry her kingdom's worth of clothes back home was just a bit taxing on the body. Sensing he wasn't long for the waking world, Astaire went to spread himself out across the floor.

Only Rise's voice stopped him. "Hold it right there! I'm not finished with you yet!" Oh, Gods above, what else could she be scheming?

"There. Doesn't that feel better than rolling around in your coat all night?" Rise asked cheerfully as she tossed herself onto her bed and under the covers. She peeked over the edge to catch sight of Astaire spreading himself out on the floor, draped in a fresh set of blue pyjamas. He looked about ready to fall asleep already. That seemed a safe enough substitute for 'yes' to her mind. Rise tucked her hands behind her head as she recalled all that had happened over the day prior. "Today was fun. Wasn't today fun?"

Thinking about it, Astaire felt that it shouldn't have been. Something odd was happening all around he and Rise both. Perhaps oddities surrounded everyone else too, and they simply hadn't seen them. Whatever the case, something was in the TV World, waiting for them at the bottom of the tower past the impenetrable black wall of fog. Worse yet, none of them could even begin to imagine what it could be, and they were the only ones who could stop it. This shouldn't have felt fun, not with that kind of situation hanging over their respective heads.

"Yes, I'd say it was rather enjoyable, all things considered." Astaire said regardless. "Even if we _did_ wind up getting caught at the end."

And in spite of certain… off-putting theories put forth by certain pint-sized detectives, as well. "Oh well. Even if we did get caught, weren't Naoto-kun and Kanji-kun just _adorable_ together?! Ah, it's so lovely I feel like I could melt!" Rise cooed, hugging herself and rolling to and fro in bed.

Astaire couldn't help but chuckle at her enthusiasm. "They _do_ seem like an… interesting couple." Was all he wanted to say on the matter, because something else was still bugging him from earlier. "Although, can you believe Kanji saying that _we_ were the ones on a date? Hah, what a loon."

The sound of Rise's rolling came to a stop. After a pause long enough to be eyebrow-raising, Rise half-heartedly laughed along. "Hah, yeah, how silly could you be, right? As _if_ we were on a date..." She trailed off sadly. "...I mean, if we really _had_ been on a date, I wouldn't have wanted to go in disguise…"

"...Really? Might I ask why?" Astaire asked gently.

Rrrgh. Stupid Knight. "...Because I'd feel like I was embarrassed or, like, shying away from yo- I mean, whoever it was I was out with. It wouldn't feel like the real me, y'know? And… I'd kinda like it to be." Rise explained, trying to stop her heart from beating so hard that it threw her off her train of thought.

After a moment's thoughtful humming, Astaire nodded. "I can understand that. That disguise of yours couldn't hold a candle to the real you." After all, the thick-rimmed glasses, the blonde hair, the flat black clothing that didn't… didn't…

It was only after he'd spoken that Astaire realised he'd been less "Your disguise looked unappealing' and more 'You yourself look appealing.'

That being said, Rise hadn't said anything about it. Or anything at all, for that matter. As on edge as he felt, Astaire chose to let his guard down a bit. With any luck, she mightn't even have heard him!

Having absolutely heard him, Rise pulled her covers up below her eyes to hide the changing hue of her cheeks. "W-Well, we just have to deal with it! You wouldn't wanna see what happens when I go out in public normally. It's chaos!" She shuddered, recalling the _last_ time she'd made a public appearance. Talk about claustrophobic. "But since we _didn't_ cause chaos today, I think we might've got away with it. With any luck that should mean the tabloids shouldn't have a field day in the morning."

At least, Rise could only hope so. Astaire may have dropped his disguise later in the day, but that alone wouldn't be enough to pick her out of a crowd while disguised, right? It wasn't like he himself was also an idol.

Yeah, they'd be alright. If anybody had seen them it'd have spread to any other onlookers like a wildfire, and that would've been pretty hard to ignore. Her mind at ease, Rise snuggled into her pillow and began to surrender her consciousness to the warmth of her covers.

Now, what kinds of places could they go to where she wouldn't have to disguise herself?


	19. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A deal, a curious test, and a forest of phantoms.

" _Could this be Risette in PUBLIC?!"_

" _New scoop shows a disguised Risette shopping with friends in Okina! Her bodyguard's there too?!"_

" _A secret meeting! Hints of a forbidden love?! Read now for more details!"_

The headlines were sickening. Kaoru gripped his phone tightly and launched it into the backrest of his sofa, resisting the urge to flip his table and scatter his myriad magazines and fan letters across the floor of his dressing room.

But God, how tempting it was.

Why _him?_ What the hell did that lumbering, hard-headed imbecile have that he himself didn't? He was an idol! Famous, attractive and young! Practically perfect in every way! And where was his invite to Okina? Probably trampled on the bottom of that blue-coated asshole's shoe, that's where!

Storming over to his closet, Kaoru threw open the doors and laid eyes on the one section that could calm him. Calendars, magazine cutouts, promotional posters, albums, anything and everything that bore the name "Risette" in any fashion was arranged meticulously on one side.

Looking into the multiple depictions of her gentle, beautiful eyes, Kaoru ran his thumb over the scar on the back of his hand. "What am I missing? What does he have that I don't?" He asked a framed picture of a smiling Rise, grasping it in both hands and shaking it violently. "What do I have to do to make her love me?!"

"One might suggest calming down, for a start."

The closet was slammed shut in an instant as Kaoru wheeled around to meet the face of the voice he'd just heard. A peculiarly-shaped face bearing a large moustache, belonging to a thin man in a suit.

Kaoru cleared his throat. "Oh, please excuse me, I mustn't have heard you come in!" And like the flick of a switch, he was back to normal, smiling gently and clasping his hands together. "What can I help you with, Mister…?"

"You are troubled over the affections of Rise Kujikawa." The man continued, ignoring Kaoru completely and noticing the layer of sweat that appeared on his brow at the mention of Rise's name. "More importantly, however…" The man took a few steps forward, staring down his sizable nose at Kaoru. "...you are troubled in regards to the one called 'Just Astaire.'"

In a flash, the facade dropped as Kaoru sneered and began poking the suited man in the chest. "I don't know what you think you know about me, but you'd be smart to forget you ever heard it. You don't want to know the things I could do to you."

Unfazed, the suited man slapped Kaoru's hand away. "Pah! Tragically little, I wager. You are as feeble and meandering as the rest of your kind, and you'd be wise not to forget it." He spat, forcing Kaoru back as he strode forward once more, hands behind his back. "Unless, of course, you were to change that."

Whoever he was, Kaoru had to admit, he was one creepy bastard. "Change what? What are you saying?!" He barked, his wall of threats thoroughly crumbled, leaving him exposed.

"I am here to make you a proposal. One which I believe you'll take a... considerable interest in." For the first time since he'd spoken, the man smiled. A wide, unsettling, large-toothed smile.

Yet as unsettling as he was, Kaoru found himself intrigued. "...Go on."

"Agree to the terms of my offer, and I can grant you power the likes of which you could only barely imagine. The power to fight against the hand life has dealt you. Perhaps, even…" The suited man smiled again as he observed the interested glimmer in Kaoru's eyes. "...the power to best Just Astaire once and for all. All we ask is that you do as is required of you."

Kaoru's face twitched slightly, and the suited man could tell he'd already won. The want of the heart was the strongest want of all.

"Do we have an accord?" He asked, outstretching a long, thin hand.

Kaoru clasped it greedily with both hands, shaking like a man possessed.

And so the pact was made.

* * *

"Eeeeh?! What do you _mean_ you haven't seen Ka-kun all day?!" Miyano-chan whined like an injured puppy, her eyes welling up with tears.

"He's our D'artagnan! We can't continue filming without our D'artagnan!" Haru-chan whined in a similar manner, stomping the stage and kicking her dress up in a huff.

"If he hasn't told us where he is, and he hasn't told _you,"_ Kida-chan said, unable to contain her venom for even half a sentence, "then who _has_ he told?!"

"Don't know, don't care. He's your problem, not mine." Rise shrugged, secretly lapping up the trio's misery like a cat at a bowl of milk. "Could you please get off the stage already? We're supposed to be rehearsing here." She said bluntly, not even attempting to hide her contempt.

Kaoru's floozies all shot her unfriendly looks as they reluctantly stormed off-stage, desperately looking for someone else to pester about the object of their affections.

Rise rolled her eyes as she went back to dancing. Why the heck did they think _she'd_ know where Kaoru was? A lot of her time was already devoted to trying to forget he even existed at all, and that's when he _wasn't_ missing! If anything, this was the best thing that'd happened all week!

...Then again, it _was_ a little strange. Someone as dickish as Kaoru didn't just stop answering their phone all of a sudden, nor did he just quietly slink off without telling anyone, especially not his chosen groupies. Looked at from a certain angle, it was as though he'd dropped off the face of the earth.

Pfft, as if she'd be _that_ lucky. Rise shook her head as her rehearsal came to a pause. If Kaoru wasn't creeping after her or picking fights with Astaire, that would make her break all the easier to enjoy peacefully.

* * *

Kanami was late. Not that Astaire especially minded- because he'd only accepted her invitation for dancing lessons so she'd cease blabbering about them- but it was bad form after she was the one who'd arranged the time and the room in the first place.

Looking himself up and down in the mirrored wall for the umpteenth time, so often that he imagined he could draw himself from memory now, Astaire sighed. Sod this, he had a charge to be keeping watch over. He made for the door and-

" _ **I FUCK THE MUSIC, I MAKE IT CUM! I FUCK THE MUSIC WITH MY SERPENT TONGUE!"**_ Kanami screamed as she viciously kicked the door in, flailing her arms about and headbanging wildly. So immersed was she that it took her a few seconds to realise Astaire was even present. Flailing stopping but her energy undying, she whipped her headphones off and shot him a smile. "Sorry! I got a little caught up on the way over. You ready to dance?"

Astaire's eye twitched in time with his outstretched arm, frozen halfway to the door. He looked like he'd just had a bomb go off behind him. Such wanton vulgarity and lasciviousness was cause enough for alarm under normal circumstances, but from _Kanami?_ Who seemed so innocent and bubbly on the surface? It was a wonder he hadn't wound up in a coma from the shock.

"What… in Gwyn's name are you listening to?" Astaire asked slowly as he began to regain normal motor functions. "That wasn't _music,_ was it?"

"Sure it was! C'mon, c'mon, are you going to dance or not?!" Kanami asked insistently, bringing her rucksack around to her front in order to retrieve her portable speaker, as though she _hadn't_ just entered the room like a hurricane loaded with explosives.

Astaire sighed to himself and shook his head. This girl was a headsore."Fine, have it your way. But I'm not doing anything to the sound of… whatever _that_ was."

* * *

Kaoru going missing, Rise could deal with. But Astaire wandering off on his own for no reason? That _never_ happened. Something funny had to be going on.

Following a wild goose chase of vague hints and 'Uh, maybe'-s, it was beginning to look like she might never find him. One studio on its own was a big place, after all. Just as she began to lose hope, something perked up Rise's ears. The muffled sound of music coming from one room further down the corridor. The name escaped her, but it sounded old. Like, symphony orchestra old.

Well that explained where Kanami was, at least. Maybe she'd know something. Without a second thought RIse made for the musically-inclined door and pushed her way in. "Hey, Kanami-chan! Have you seen…?"

What awaited her on the other side was Kanami, held deftly above Astaire's head with one arm, her pigtails swinging below her and her arms and legs splayed out to the side. "Hi, Rise-senpai! DId you come by for dancing practice too?" She asked cheerfully. "Maybe you could help Astaire-san suck less, this is the only thing we've got right all day!"

Astaire craned his neck back and shot Kanami an upside down glare. "What do you expect?! You're asking me to do things that'll wrap my legs around themselves like some kind of ragdoll!"

Kanami waggled her eyebrows and crossed her arms mid-lift. "Your footwork was fine when you were fighting Ka-kun~!" She singsonged.

"That's a different situation entirely, they can't be compared." Astaire added quickly and monotonously before shifting his attention back in front of him. "Anyway, is something troubling you, Ms. Kujikawa? You were asking if we'd seen something?"

Rise at last broke her solid glare on Kanami and shook herself lucid again. "N-No, no! Everything's just fine and dandy here, really! I'm just gonna… uh…" Oh, screw it. Rise gave up and shot out the door again without another word, leaving a very confused Kanami and Astaire in her wake.

"Huh. What was that about?" Kanami asked as she fell limp on Astaire's arm.

"Haven't the foggiest. Perhaps I should pursue her and find out." Astaire wondered out loud, rubbing his chin with his free hand.

His pondering was interrupted as Kanami reached down and lightly slapped him in the cheek. "Aww c'mon, just one more try? Please?"

"Must we?" Astaire sighed as Kanami nodded her head, smiling brightly. "Ugh. I suppose I must."

* * *

 _She_ could dance. Astaire even said he liked her dancing. Why didn't he ask _her_ to teach him? It wasn't like Kanami was any less skilled or busy than _she_ was, she just worked in another studio.

Such thoughts plagued Rise as she idly spun around in her chair in her dressing room, moving only to stare at her reflection as she passed it by.

She needed to let off steam. It was time to find someone to send angry texts to. Like a vulture moving in for the kill, Rise's hand dove into her bag to grab her phone.

Damn Kanami. Damn her and her cutesy attitude and weird music and shapely hips and massive boobs and…

Wait a second. What was _that?_ It felt kind of rough and cold, and it left a sort of chalky residue on her fingers when she touched it. Curiosity blossoming, Rise hauled the offending item out into the open.

Oh yeah, Astaire-kun's White Stone thing! She'd almost forgotten it was in there. Rise turned it over in her hands, trying to brush the white off her and failing to do so. It was chalkier than chalk itself, somehow.

" _...simply write my name on the floor and touch it. Do that, and I'll appear at a moment's notice."_

...Hmm. Really now?

* * *

"Higher, higher! Woo!" Kanami cheered as Astaire spun her around on the spot above his head, giggling uncontrollably.

"I can't help but feel like this no longer classes as dancing anymo-"

As if his cord had been unplugged from the wall, Astaire suddenly shut up and fell completely limp, crumpling to the floor and landing he and Kanami into one uncomfortable heap.

"Ow! Hey, what gives?! I just about felt like I was flying for a moment!" Kanami complained as she picked herself up and dusted herself off. "Gosh, that was dangerous. Hope you didn't break your neck, Astaire-kun!" She laughed as she gave Astaire a jab in the side with her foot.

To which he didn't respond.

"Huh? Astaire-kun? Hey, are you alright? Hello?!"

* * *

Well that was underwhelming. Nothing happened. "So much for being here at a moment's notice…" Rise sulked, tossing the Soapstone back in her bag and pouting. Breaking promises didn't seem very knightly.

Then she heard a noise. It was hard to describe, but the first word she thought of was 'magical'. In any case, it was coming from behind her. Not only that, but it was growing louder.

"What the heck is- _AAAAAAAH!"_ Rise backed away into the corner of her room as the head of a pure-white, humanoid figure began to slowly rise from her dressing room floor. "Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod stay away from me!" She screeched, putting her hands between herself and… whatever the hell _it_ was.

The figure arose until it was fully formed, taking the shape of a man in a long coat, possessing wavy hair and… oh. Oh! "Astaire-kun, is that you?!" Rise asked through her fingers.

The Phantom opened its dead, pupil-less eyes and blinked. Then it began to look around itself, clutching at its coat and opening its mouth in a manner which _kind_ of looked like talking. It was definitely Astaire, but he looked _really_ confused.

"Oh thank god, you almost gave me a heart attack! Why didn't you tell me that's what the stone did?!" Rise sighed in relief as she walked up to Phantom Astaire. His luminescent brow creased as he flapped his lips wordlessly, gesturing in a manner that suggested he was less than pleased. "You know I can't hear a thing you're saying, right?"

Astaire ran a hand down his face. Godforsaken Phantom limitations. He pointed to the door, imitated his stance when holding Kanami up, then let his upper body fall limp all at once.

"Wait, do you mean your not-glowy body is still up there?!" Rise gasped. Astaire nodded. "...Were you still holding Kanami up when it happened?" Again, Astaire nodded.

...As bad as it sounded, Rise almost wanted to giggle. That'd teach her.

But Astaire was watching her, hands on his hips and one foot tapping impatiently. A look of "Why on earth did you summon me when I'm just down the hall?" on his face. She'd just have to stifle herself for now.

Thank goodness for Senpai's good timing. "Oh, I wanted to tell you that I just got a message from Senpai! He wants us all to meet up at Junes later!" Rise held out her phone for proof, which would've been great if Astaire could've read it. "Sooo... yeah?* She shrugged. Would it be a good enough reason?

Well, it was better than no reason. Still, if Astaire had eyes he would've rolled them. He instead sighed a silent sigh, reached inside his coat and retrieved a hunk of black crystal, layered in white cloth. He knelt down and pressed the crystal to his chest. It visibly glimmered, and before long Astaire was sinking back into the floor again.

"Eheheheh… See you later…" Rise laughed sheepishly, giving Astaire a little wave as he sunk away under the carpet entirely.

That could've gone better. It could've gone worse, but that wasn't saying much.

" _Gee, I hope his body's alright…"_ Rise thought to herself.

* * *

Kanami clutched her phone with sweating palms, eyes scanning Astaire's body up and down in a storm of worry. With much effort she had rolled him onto his back. But he wasn't breathing. "H-Hello?! Emergency services?! I need a paramedic out here, like, now!" Kanami squawked in panic. "I-It's my friend! He just fell limp all of a sudden and now he's not breathing!"

Ooooh this was bad. This was very very bad. Rise-senpai was going to skin her alive if she saw this. She had to fix this ASAP. With the operator on the other side of her phone yammering away, Kanami decided to take action.

Hoo, boy. If Rise-senpai wouldn't like this situation, she was _really_ going to hate this.

Kanami placed a hand over Astaire's mouth. Definitely no breathing, as if his unmoving chest wasn't evidence enough. Keeping her phone held to her ear with her shoulder, Kanami put her hands to Astaire's chest before pressing down. God, she hoped she was doing this right.

Thirty compressions later, Astaire wasn't looking much better.

Kanami sighed. "Sorry, Rise-senpai…" Mustering up the guts, she took a deep breath and lowered her head towards-

_Thwack._

Astaire's suddenly-awake head coming to meet her.

" _BWAH, HE'S ALIVE!"_

" _ARGH!"_

Kanami rolled back as Astaire rolled to the side, both clutching their faces and suddenly feeling a little more concussed than they had been before. "Owowow, my nose…" Kanami said in a nasally voice as she tried massaging the pain away. She sat herself upright, coming face-to-face with the fellow who'd been suspiciously close to 'dead' a second earlier.

He looked at her blankly as a large red hue overtook his nose. "I think it would be wise of us to continue this later."

"Good idea."

* * *

Sunlight graced the food court of Junes, filling it to the brim with the sounds of laughter and joy from groups of every age. It was the perfect time to go and enjoy a sunny, summery day out.

It was a less than perfect time for a meeting with nine people crammed in like sardines around one table. Hustling in closer to avoid drawing attention was easier said than done, especially in the boiling heat. Such was life when lived as creatures of habit, as the Team had spent the better part of a year becoming.

"Holy shit, seriously? Somebody's stalkin' you two?" Kanji leaned in to the table and kept his voice low, glancing suspiciously at everyone walking by. "An' he was outside _my_ frickin' house?! The hell is that about?!"

"Pretty stupid stalker if he's following Rise around after what happened to those other two guys." Yosuke pointed out as he swung on his chair's back legs. He nearly fell off at the collective pointed gaze he got from everyone at once. "I'm just saying! Either he doesn't read the news or he just _really_ wants his fingers broken." He shrugged.

"He spoke to you, right Rise-chan? What'd he say?" Yukiko asked, ignoring Yosuke completely.

Rise bit her lip and gazed at the table's surface as she tried to remember his words perfectly. "He wanted to know how… _close_ Astaire-san and I were. He said he'd leave once I told him." Even under the sun's burning gaze, Rise shuddered. "What a freak."

"Used my first name and all. Whoever he is, he's well informed." Astaire mused, running a hand down the long sleeves of his shirt and relishing the airflow compared to his coat. "Feels a bit odd after all this time, really. Nobody in Lordran ever called me 'Just Astaire' either."

Rise raised a hand to her mouth as she giggled. "Ooh, it even feels weird to hear! Last time we used it was…" And then her giggle faded, her face sinking. "...It was…"

Whatever conclusion Rise had just come to, it seemed to spread out amongst Naoto, Yu and Yukiko at the same time. Suddenly _extremely_ interested in the conversation, Yu leaned in until he was practically lying atop the table. "Astaire-san. When was the last time you or somebody else used your first name?"

Gods, that must've been a while ago. "Hmm… I believe it was… when I first met you all, right? Back when Ms. Kujikawa introduced us all. I've introduced myself as Knight Astaire ever since to avoid the confusion."

Putting aside how 'Knight' didn't raise as many questions as the given name 'Just' might, the thought taking form in Naoto's head clicked. She leaned in and cast a serious look around everyone at the table. "Has anyone here used Astaire-san's first name since our first meeting?"

Everyone looked between themselves, looks ranging from concerned to confused. Half wondering what the deal was, and the other half wondering _why_ it was.

"So what you're saying is… nobody in this world should know what Astaire-san's first name is besides us?" Yukiko summed up.

The atmosphere suddenly seemed to coalesce, becoming dense and hard to breathe. A vague sense of unease crept up Astaire's arm as he finally realised what they were getting at.

The only people who knew his full name were those present inside the TV when he was rescued.

So how did that explain the suited man knowing it as well?

"...I think it would be a good idea if we kept an eye out for this suited man in the future. If anyone sees him from here on out, be sure to tell the rest of us as soon as possible." Yu said seriously, trying to ignore the goosebumps that were populating his arms. "But for now, I think we'd better focus on the task at hand. Is everyone ready to mobilise?"

"Just bearly! With all this running around as of late, I think my joints are turning into jelly! Especially after I had to scrub my suit clean last night!" A notably suit-less Teddie moaned, clearly having not anticipated how difficult blood was to rinse out.

Yu rolled his eyes with a chuckle. " _Other_ than Teddie, is everyone ready to go?"

The cacophony of everyone's chairs getting pushed out from below them was a pretty good indicator. "You betcha! Let's go kick Astaire-san's world in the ass!" Chie said enthusiastically, punching one of her palms.

Making very sure not to get spotted by anyone in the surprisingly active electronics aisle, the Team slipped in one by one as their latest expedition began.

* * *

It seemed like every journey into the TV World as of late was designed to show everyone how they took fresh air for granted, because the Boulder Giant's vaporised corpse didn't smell much better than the Lightning Drake's had. There was a good reason nobody sold 'Dried blood, gunpowder and rotting flesh' air fresheners.

At least it wasn't as sticky as it had been when wet. A parade of crumbled, crusty footprints were left along the floor as the team made their way toward the large door set in the tower's side. The dark, aged wooden boards lightened up towards the center, where a small orb of light seemed to be set in the middle. "Ooh, pretty!" Rise acutely summarised.

"I'm a little worried about what answer I'll get, but… Astaire-san?" Yu said, looking around to meet Astaire's now-armoured form. He'd apparently swapped out his armour from before to another set, adorned with a blue and yellow tunic on the torso and steel plating everywhere else. "Care to wager what we're walking into?"

Hmm. Elite Knight armour was surprisingly comfortable. Whyever had he stopped wearing it? Wait, no, now wasn't the time. Shaking his head and forgoing a helmet, Astaire pushed his glasses up his nose as he examined the light set in the door. "I don't recognise the door, I'm afraid. It's unlike anything I've ever seen." He then turned his attention to everything _around_ the door. Stone bricks mottled with moss and thin vines. "...But that greenery worries me."

Greenery like that only meant one thing, and it _wasn't_ what normally came after Sen's Fortress.

"Unless worryin's gonna clear out everything on the other side of this door, I doubt standin' here's gonna help us much." Kanji said with a shrug, setting his Drakeshield down to put his shoulder into the door. Surprisingly, it didn't budge an inch. "D-Damn thing's stuck or somethin'!" Grunted Kanji, his feet slipping underneath him as he tried and failed to push.

Time for a bit of the old elbow grease. Yu, Astaire, Teddie and Yosuke stepped up beside Kanji and put their shoulders to the weathered wood. "On my signal, we all push at once, alright?" Nodding at Yu's command, the boys braced themselves. "One… two… three!"

There was a sharp, sudden sound, reminiscent of glass shattering and a bullet being fired all at once. The orb of light split into innumerable pieces, flinging the door open easily and flinging the guys to the floor as a result.

Picking himself up and gazing at their path forward, Astaire realised he'd been right to be worried.

From a spatial standpoint, it didn't make sense. It was completely impossible. There shouldn't have been a fully-formed, overgrown, dangerous, ancient-looking forest at the top of a tower that was _far_ from ground level. What's more, it shouldn't have been in the dead of night either. But there it was.

"Darkroot Garden." Astaire announced grimly as he picked himself up. "This… mightn't be good news."

Yeah, as if a spooky-ass forest in the middle of the night was going to be anything _but_ bad news.

"Holy cow. Who'da thought there'd be a whole other forest at the top of that deathtrap from last time?" Chie asked, stepping out from the stone slabs beneath her onto the-

"Wait a second!" Astaire bellowed, wrenching Chie back by her shoulder.

She took it about as well as could've been expected. "Hey, get off me! What gives?!"

Astaire didn't answer her. His brow was taut as he leaned over the divide between forest and tower, straining his ears for any noise. Quickly he leapt back and produced a pair of binoculars from his bottomless box, scanning between the trees.

Squinting at the darkness and seeing nothing, Naoto spoke up. "Do you see anything out there?"

"No." Astaire tucked his binoculars away and fished out his claymore again, glaring at the forest all the while. "But it's not going to stay that way. Everyone be on your guard."

Confused, curious and cautious all at once, the team took their first steps into the Darkroot Garden.

Astaire turned on a heel to look back at the fortress before his eyes went wide. "Curses."

A wall of fog had solidified behind them, locking off their only known exit from the forest. Rise's eyes were quick to widen too. This wasn't the first time this had happened. "Oh no… Does this mean-?" She turned to ask Astaire worriedly.

The forest took it upon itself to answer her instead, as a familiar, magical-sounding noise pierced the silence in the air.

"Dark Spirits. Forest Hunters." Astaire confirmed, taking off from where he stood and sprinting into the bushes and trees off the beaten path. "Everyone over here, quickly! Keep yourselves hidden!" He whispered as loudly as he could.

Considering the last Dark Spirit everyone had known of was immortalised in stone and stabbing Astaire in the back, nobody was quick to protest. Everyone dove into the flora and kept themselves low, daring to peek out above the brush.

Sure enough, slinking out from the trees and moving with silent footsteps was a phantom of deep blue, dressed in flowing robes and carrying a long, thin staff cloaked in crystals. It stepped out of the undergrowth, the sound of shifting moss and leaves falling completely silent as it set foot on the beaten path.

The Forest Hunter stood in the clearing and lolled its head back. It took one look at the fog wall and quickly turned its attention to the rest of the forest.

He knew they were there. He just didn't know _where._

Nobody dared to breathe. Nobody dared to move. Their hearts beat so strongly that they swore they would give themselves away. The blood in their veins ran cold as the Phantom's gaze swept over them.

Inside, they begged. Please don't find us. Please move on. _Please._

But the Phantom didn't move. It only surveyed the surroundings. _It knew they were there. It was waiting for their move first._

Bloody sorcerers. Always so cautious and frail, even if their spells hit like a charge from a boar. Astaire ground his teeth as he slowly, carefully reached into the bottomless box, never letting the phantom leave his sight.

If it wanted a first move, it was bloody well going to get one.

The Phantom's line of sight drifted, far enough to give Astaire his opening. He quickly retrieved his item of choice, a small pebble of some sort, and tossed it over-arm into the bushes on the other side of the clearing. The plant life underneath rustled as it broke the fall.

The Phantom reacted in an instant. A mystic tingle cascaded over the skin of everyone present as magic filled the air. A mighty Soul Spear dashed through the woods and bushes, leaving a clear path to where the noise had originated from.

Of course, there was nothing there. The Phantom began to move to investigate the area further, only to catch another sound as the Soul Spear's influence faded away. Footsteps, hard and heavy.

Astaire's claymore ran the Phantom through from back to front, leaving it limp on the blade. With another thrust he forced it to the ground before he brought the sword down again, scattering the Phantom into a fine blue mist.

Perhaps stabbing him from behind hadn't been the most knightly thing to do. Nor hiding in the shadows and striking when he was distracted.

Oh well, his fault for being a sorcerer.

Bloody sorcerers.

"God, that was tense! I thought I was gonna explode!" Yosuke sighed. The thought of what that spell might've done had it actually hit wasn't a pleasant one. "So are we good? Can we keep going?"

Astaire shook his head. The fog wall still stood in place. The forest remained active. From somewhere else in the woods, far off from where the team stood, the sound of another Phantom being summoned reverberated through the trees.

"We can keep going. But they're going to keep coming."

* * *

There was no end to them.

As the team followed Yu and Astaire's backs, kneeling down and slinking through the greenery like a platoon of commandos, more sounds filled the air, each one signifying the arrival of yet another Phantom.

To worsen matters, the further into the Darkroot Garden everyone went, the more concerning the scenery grew. Large tree trunks with gashes and gaps, some so large they'd fallen completely. The remnants of crystal sorceries, leaving tiny, sparkling spikes hanging onto low-hanging leaves like an early morning dew. Sections where the plants and the ground were flattened, no doubt under the might of a greathammer.

One detail remained consistent. There were weapons _everywhere._ Large swords lay lodged in the ground. Spears stuck out of rusting, mossed-over suits of armour, Battleaxes stuck out from the trees like iron branches.

Darkroot Garden had seen every type of battle there was, and it had the scars to prove it

It wasn't the most inviting of environments, even outside the circumstances. "Wait!" Yu whispered and brought up a hand, bringing everyone behind him to a halt. Another Phantom, brandishing a lengthy halberd in both hands, trudged through. the moss and vines nary a few feet ahead of everyone.

Another Prism Stone tossed through the air. Another Spirit distracted. Another mighty thrust through the back from Astaire, and the spirit was gone.

Everyone let out a breath in unison. This stealthy stuff was hell for one's nerves.

Naoto peeked through the bushes and occasionally worked up the courage to peek above them. All around, as far as she could see, were trees, trees and more trees. "I don't mean to sound impatient…" She whispered, so quietly that she wondered if anyone could actually hear her. "...but do we actually have a target in mind as far as destinations go?"

"As dangerous as that fortress was earlier, at least we were only ever moving up. It seemed pretty hard to get lost in." Whispered Yukiko. "Now it seems like anyone's guess where we're going…"

Rise gave Astaire a nudge in the side and shrugged. "What'd you do last time you came here?"

"Artorias' Grave. That was my destination last time." He replied instantly. It wasn't an easy situation to forget. "Though I'd be unsure of whether or not it's our destination now, given how perplexing this world proves to be."

Then again, Artorias' grave _had_ been surrounded by swords and weapons as well, much like forest at large seemed to be now… perhaps they were closer to the mark than they realised. Either way, the best bet seemed to be carrying on as they were. No point in making themselves any easier to see.

"This is hopeless, we're probably just going 'round in circles now!" Yosuke hissed quietly as he fended off branches from assaulting his face. "Rise, can't you do something about this? Do a scan or two and find out where the hell we are?"

"With that amount of light and sound, we'd be targets for everything in here in the blink of an eye." Yu answered for her.

"Oh c'mon! You really think all these ghostly dudes could take us if we all ganged up on them at once?!"

"And how many is _all_ of them, Yosuke? Do _you_ know how many of them are out there?" Yu asked as he carefully navigated through the roots of one massive, moss-covered tree. "There could be three or three hundred of them, we just don't know!"

Passing the same tree, Yosuke thumped his fist off the trunk. "It'd only take the one scan to find out! Why don't we-" He stopped.

Something had shot out of the tree. And it was wrapping around his arm like a snake.

" _AAAAGH GET OFF ME!"_ Yosuke yelped as he strained against the constricting force.

His voice echoed throughout the forest.

"Yosuke-senpai, you goddamn idiot! Keep your voice down!" Kanji said lowly, no longer bothering to whisper.

" _I SAID GET OFF ME YOU FREAKY BASTARD!"_ Yosuke screamed regardless, ignoring his friends as they simultaneously rounded on him with anger and fear in their eyes. Easy for them to do, considering they weren't all being tangled up by some long, thin-limbed green monstrosity that had hidden up in the branches.

The weird lizardy thing had constricted Yosuke's arm with what appeared to be one of its two necks. The snake-like mouth around his arm snapped at his face, while the other flailed wildly, fending off anyone else from getting too close.

"Oh, screw this! _Takehaya Suzano-o!"_

The same phrase rushed to the forefronts of everyone's mind at once.

" _YOSUKE, NO!"_

But it was too late. Takehaya Suzano-o ripped through the tree lizard like it was made of paper, throwing it into the branches overhead as the trees and bushes blustered in the breeze.

The sound of Yosuke's summoning, the tree lizard's death, and the rustling or snapping of branches all reverberated through the trees, like the roar of a hurricane that had suddenly disappeared.

Everyone froze on the spot, fearful anticipation gripping their hearts.

The ground beneath their feet seemed to shudder as the lizard's body hit the ground, before the _entire forest_ seemed to begin rustling angrily around them at once, as though every creature from every corner had begun listing for flesh at once.

Astaire raised his claymore to the trees ahead and backed away towards Rise. "It, uh…. might be prudent of you to start scanning now, Ms. Kujikawa."

* * *

Looking on the bright side, at least everyone found a way of getting Astaire to run from a fight.

"There's fifteen- sixteen- there's… there's a whole freaking lot of them, Senpai!" Rise cried from Astaire's shoulders as he dashed and dove between trees for the both of them, Kouzeon's form chasing behind her alongside _damn near everything the forest had been hiding._

A luminous blue wave of Phantoms, carrying weapons and armour of all shapes and sizes, chased after the team with dogged determination, following Kouzeon's light as though it were a lighthouse's beacon. Thankfully, armour and armaments weren't exactly crafted for running through the forest at speed, so there was at least _some_ distance between them and the team.

Distance which the beasts of the forest filled readily. "Augh, these things are disgusting!" Chie gagged as she punted another gross red frog-slash-manta-ray creature into the thorny briars to her side. "And they won't freaking die either! Rise-chan, tell me what they're weak to!"

Focusing on one target was difficult with this many enemies at the best of times, never mind while trying to keep her balance atop somebody's shoulders. "It's- It's- um… C'mon, c'mon… Fire! They're weak to fire!"

"Oh, that's my cue!" Yukiko chirped up, flicking her fan out and reeling back to strike her Arcana card mid-run.

She almost hit it, too. Yosuke dashed alongside her and clasped her upper arm roughly. "Are you out of your mind?! We're in a forest! A _forest!_ Things are bad enough as is without us getting roasted alive to top it all off!"

Thankfully, a problem ice magic didn't have, as Teddie sprinted and froze woodland beasts all at once. "Well someone is going to have to take over for me eventually! I can't keep this up forever!"

"There's some kind of bridge leading out of the forest up ahead! I think that's where we're supposed to go!" Rise hollered as she dismissed Kouzeon, leaning over Astaire's head and pointing in the direction of the bridge. "It was that way, not much further!"

A bridge leading out of the forest? That sounded familiar. And if it was familiar for the reasons Astaire suspected, it might've been just the solution they were looking for.

There was no time to waste. As the canopy seemed to grow thicker and lower overhead, Astaire whipped forward, rolling Rise off his shoulders and into his arms, bridal style. "Everyone! If we incite the wrath of whatever awaits us across that bridge, the fog wall will stop these beasts from following us in! We must hurry!"

And hurry they did, (Save for Rise, who hadn't much choice.) With the Frog-Rays nipping at their heels, the trees themselves seeming to spring to life and grasp at them, and a veritable army's worth of Forest Hunters hounding their every move, the Investigation Team finally breached the edge of the Darkroot Garden.

True enough, leading off the edge of the cliff that awaited them was a lengthy stone bridge, extending across to a massive stone door with a glowing white fissure down the middle. As impressive a sight as it was, nobody had time to stop and stare. Everyone's heels clicked as they sprinted for Artorias' grave.

Or, what Astaire assumed would be Artorias' grave, anyway. Which raised another problem, actually. Fighting Sif yet again. Gods above it'd been hard enough the first time, and difficult besides. Putting down Artorias' faithful companion twice wasn't a welcome thought. But it was more welcoming than being put down himself.

As the team approached, the fissure of light began to part in the middle. Both massive doors rumbled open, giving the team their first sight of…

...What in Gwyn's name?

It _was_ Artorias' grave. The wide open space, the massive gravestone, the plethora of weapons, everything was there. There were only two differences.

Artorias' massive sword looked as though it'd been dredged up from the bottom of a lake. It was rusted and corroded, a far cry from the signature luster Astaire knew it to have.

The second difference was Sif. She _was_ there.

But she was already dead.

Damn, if he wasn't mid-run he could've tried to puzzle it out. "Hey… is that the wolf you said you killed to make your ghost-killing sword?" Rise asked from below his chin. Astaire have her a quick nod. "Okay… so why is it _still_ dead if it's in here?"

"You don't think… you don't think somethin' got to it before we did, do ya?" Kanji asked anxiously.

Naoto glanced at him incredulously as she held down her cap down mid-sprint. "And what manner of beast do you propose could do such a thing so easily?" Kanji motioned his head back towards Astaire. "Ah. Well, yes, I suppose that makes sense."

If a normal human- as normal as humans from Astaire's world could claim to be- were capable of killing such a monster, it left plenty of room for speculation, none of it good. It could've been anything.

Crossing over the threshold that was the giant stone doors, Rise chanced a look over Astaire's shoulder. The forest monsters had given up, but the Forest Hunters were as dogged as ever. But that wasn't the most concerning thing. "There's no fog wall! Guys, the fog wall isn't appearing!"

"Oh, that's just _great_! Now we're stuck in one big dead end with a million angry glowing dudes after us!" Yosuke moaned as everyone drew closer to Sif's body. He swung around and ran backwards to face Astaire and Rise. "Any more bright ideas?!"

Well, it was _an_ idea. Astaire doubted many would call it bright. "Kanji!" He cried out before sprinting up to Kanji's side and quickly offloading Rise into his free arm. "Look after her for me. I'll handle this."

Both Kanji and Rise opened their mouths to protest, but Astaire had already ceased running. He swung around with his claymore in hand, primed to strike the first of the Forest Hunters who rushed him.

If Yu didn't know any better he'd have sworn he had a death wish. "Damnit, we can't leave anyone behind! Everyone form up!" He commanded sternly, whipping around to face the oncoming horde of Phantoms head-on.

One by one everyone fell to a halt. This was crazy. There was no way they could take that many of them on at once. By sheer numbers alone they'd already won. But they were cornered. Their presumed target was already dead. They _had_ to fight, as slim as victory may have been.

The air was rife with fear. A set of eight Arcana cards lit up the faces of their wielders as Astaire drew his sword behind his back to strike.

"Per-!"

Suddenly, the air distorted around the Forest Hunters. Every single one of them stopped on the spot, then began to dissolve into tiny blue particles, blowing away on an unfelt breeze.

The tip of Astaire's claymore hit off the dirt underneath as his face twisted with confusion. "Goodness. Which one of you did tha-?" He began to ask as he turned to face everyone. The first thing to stop him was the look on _everyone else's_ faces. Their confusion was on par with his own.

They hadn't even got as far as summoning their Personas, so what happened?

"Everyone…?" Astaire spoke up again, bringing his sword up again and staring at Artorias' grave worriedly. "What happened to Sif's body?"

_No way._

Yet turning around on the spot proved him to be right. Sif's body was gone.

Worse yet, so was Artorias' sword.

"H-How is this possible?! It was right behind us, we would have heard something happen!" Rise squeaked as she cupped her hands around her mouth.

Where the sword had been, a long, thick hole was left in the dirt. Naoto stepped over and knelt down to examine it. "This is…" She quickly recoiled and drew back the hammer on her revolver, eyes scanning the trees bordering the clearing. "The markings on the hole suggest the sword was pulled out cleanly. Something is close by."

The forest surrounding the grave seemed to undulate and quiver, like an ocean made of leaves tossed up by an unseen storm. It seemed like an attack could've come from anywhere or everywhere. Taking it upon herself to nail down what the hell was going on, Rise focused and evoked Kouzeon above her.

What she saw drew a gasp from her. "G-Guys… I don't know w-what I'm looking at here…" She trembled as she spoke, her irises shrinking to pinpricks inside her visor.

There was one massive, forest-wide enemy signature. The entire map lit up an angry red, dwarfing the signatures of every other forest beast like an all-consuming red mist. It didn't make sense. There was nothing that big above the forest, and it could hardly have been underground. What did it mea-

A sharp pain in Kouzeon's side shattered her into pieces and transferred the pain directly to Rise herself. She screamed as she fell to her knees. The pain was unlike anything she'd ever felt before, deep-set and boiling hot.

The team was of two minds. Naoto, Yukiko, Yu and Kanji glanced around at the trees, trying to figure out what exactly had hit Kouzeon. The rest, _"Ms. Kujikawa!"_ were knelt next to Rise in an instant. "Gods above, are you alright?!"

As immense as the pain was, Rise slipped a hand under her shirt and felt the skin around her pained side. Perplexingly, it was as smooth and soft as ever, despite feeling like something had taken a bite out of her. "Don't worry, I'm alright…" Rise said as she staggered to her feet. The pain would subside. For now, the team still needed her.

Even though she was only slightly worse for wear, Astaire felt his temper flare up regardless. "Sif! You four-legged coward, come out and face us! Is this the way Artorias taught you to fight?!" He roared into the trees, expression twisted into one of inscrutable anger.

The trees shook violently as the forest seemed to roar back at him. From across the bridge, a long, sustained howl sounded out within the forest. Loud enough that it evidently wasn't the work of a normal-sized wolf.

Impossible. Sif _couldn't_ have somehow resurrected, crept away behind everyone's backs, then _somehow_ crept over to the forest just as quietly. Formidable though she may have been, she wasn't what many would've called light-footed. Something about the whole situation stunk like a rotting corpse.

Curiosity and caution played subordinate to anger as Astaire ran off towards the bridge, bloodlust filling his bespectacled eyes. Nobody harmed _his_ charge and got away with it, not even a companion of Artorias.

"Astaire-san, it's a trap! Whatever this is, it doesn't want to fight us on even footing!" Yu called out, nonetheless sprinting after Astaire and bringing everyone else with him in turn.

"Well then it's hardly going to be the one coming to _us_ then, is it?!" Astaire yelled back, eyes fixated on the darkness between the trees, waiting to catch sight of the Great Grey Wolf's prowling form. "We'll have to kill it sooner or later, Mr. Narukami, and I'd much prefer it to be the former!"

* * *

It was toying with them.

From outside the forest's confines, the team had picked up on hefty pants, low growls and the occasional howl from within. Inside, all fell silent. From the sounds of it, Sif had disappeared on the wind, never to be seen again.

"The beast can't have gone far. Has anyone else seen anything?" Astaire asked everyone behind him as he kicked up the flora at his feet. He only stopped moving when he didn't get an answer. Turning around, it suddenly became evident that he had been talking to thin air. The team were no longer behind him. "Oh, _hell."_

When and how had it happened? How long ago? Was it Sif? How hadn't he heard her approach? Why hadn't anyone said anything?

The more questions he asked himself, the more isolated and trapped Astaire began to feel. He could handle himself, and he trusted that the same could be said of Yu and everyone else. That wasn't the issue. The issue was _what had happened to separate them in the first place._

The rustling of bushes off to one side grabbed Astaire's attention as he swung his sword around. The snapping of branches behind him spun him around even quicker. Even though he was inside the TV, a wind coursed through the trees and seemed to let out a low, howling moan, like the laboured voice of one in their death throes. The cold breeze nipped at the gaps in Astaire's armour as it passed through and over him, swaying the canopy above him to and fro as though it were alive and watching him.

It was impossible to tell how long ago he'd gotten separated from everyone else. It was also impossible to know how long he'd ran for, or how far. This version of Darkroot Garden seemed infinitely massive compared to the original. The sort of place one could run forever until their mind began to fade and fail.

Considering the entire forest seemed to snarl and lunge at him, and his focus seemed impossible to maintain, maybe that was exactly the case. One's mind needed not be Hollow to be addled. Perhaps he'd wandered so long that his had finally been lost altogether. For the briefest of moments, Astaire's guard dropped as he pondered his situation.

As if on cue, a pair of dangerous yellow eyes sprung open between the trees before lunging hungrily at Astaire's back, so quickly that he almost didn't have time to roll out of the way. Whatever yellow-eyed fiend had lashed out at him, its lunge ended in the trees, where it seemingly disappeared before Astaire's eyes.

 _That's_ how it had done it. It was lunging from one set of trees to the other, barely spending any time out in the open. Whatever _it_ was, it was much faster and stealthier than Sif had ever been, and likely twice as deadly. Not wanting to get caught out again. Astaire raised his sword to his shoulder and stood deathly still, straining his ears.

Another lunge from his right. Astaire rolled forward as the undergrowth whipped up beneath him, his attacked large enough to whip up a vicious wind in its wake. If only he could get a proper look at what it was.

The lunges only became more fast and fearsome as time went on. The enemy struck from every angle with lightning speed, leaving Astaire time to do little but roll and dodge desperately, praying it'd be enough to stop him getting diced to pieces.

He couldn't go on like this. The situation was quickly becoming a war of attrition between him and… whatever monstrous entity was attacking him, and the likelihood of him outlasting such a being seemed remarkably slim. He needed a plan. He needed to strike. But _when?_

Then it became noticeable. As his muscles began to tire of consistent, rapid exertion, Astaire realised something. The attacks had a rhythm. A tempo. He clicked his teeth together in his mouth, keeping time every time the unseen force launched a strike from the trees. Indeed, he wasn't imagining things. The attacks were unrelenting, but they were also consistent.

" _Which means an opening should present itself right around…"_ Astaire's teeth clacked once more. He rolled to his feet and spun around on the spot, both hands to his sword as he threw his weight into one massive swing. " _There!"_

A sturdy hit, punctuated by the sound of branches breaking and flesh giving way to metal, was Astaire's reward for facing the danger head-on. A muffled, pained cry escaped whatever he had hit, and the undergrowth shifted and flowed in time as the enemy's considerable mass landed with a _thump_ off the ground.

At last, Astaire was face to face with his attacker.

Horror, mixed with a twinge of sadness, spurted from his heart and lodged a weight in his throat.

He'd been right the first time. It was indeed the Great Grey Wolf herself, Sif.

But that was only half of it.

The wounds around Sif's body were scarily familiar. Thick gouges parted her fur where his Zweihander had cut her back in Lordran, with parts of her front legs cut to the bone. Innumerable wounds and scratches ran up the wolf's face, above a patch of burnt, exposed skin where his pyromancies had bit at her fur.

It was definitely the same wolf, if not a very convincing replica. But the wounds alone should've been enough to put her to sleep eternally.

That was the other half of it.

Dark, thick branches seemed to tear out of Sif's skin, as though her pelt were a cover for a barren tree. The wood seemed to stretch across the worse of her wounds, almost like attempted wooden sutures. Worse yet, they seemed to be _moving, and growing._ It almost looked as though they were alive. Where the branches writhed and attempted to close over her wounds from the inside, the patches of exposed skin began to turn green and sprout leaves in place of fur, which had begun to spread across the rest of her body.

Finally, Sif's face came into view in the moonlight. The branches had worked up her neck and around her face, culminating in a thick, painful-looking thorned muzzle around her mouth, to which Artorias' rusted, dilapidated greatsword seemed fused by the new matter that slowly overtook it.

It was horrific. An abomination. A beast reclaimed by the forest around it and paraded around like a mottled, rotting puppet on wooden strings. It was all Astaire could do to contain his horror at such an unnatural, sickening sight. This wasn't Sif. This wasn't the one Artorias had fought alongside. It was an uppity garden wearing her like a barely-functioning fur coat.

Was this the fate that awaited those who died in the forest? Inside this part of the TV World? If he or Rise were to perish, would this be their eternal future?

Even without the thought to sober him, Astaire felt his anger at the forest reach a boiling point. That Sif should've met such a fate was horrible enough as it was. He wasn't going to let it happen to anyone else. He caught his breath and raised his sword again as 'Sif' got to her feet and shook her head, glaring at him with eyes long-dead.

It was time to put the old girl to rest once and for all, even if he had to do it on his own.

 

* * *

 

Boy, Kanami really will listen to anything.

(Confession time: I've been wanting to write her listening to this song for _ages._ )


	20. The Inferno

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sickening sight, a fiery hell, and a talk with the other side of the coin.

It was the forest. Not Sif, not the phantoms, not even the beasts inside it. The whole damn forest was out to get them. It was the only explanation Rise could think to come up with based on Kouzeon's readings. It was a conclusion so terrifying that she almost wished she'd never thought about it. A resurrected wolf running about with a rusty sword sounded hard enough to deal with, but how on earth did one go about killing an entire forest?

Much less _this_ forest. It seemed like the longer everyone spent running through the dark, mossy, aged trees, the more the plant life tried ts best to hamper their efforts. Branches of trees swayed and swung, like great wooden claws slashing at their hapless prey. Bushes seemed to clutch at their clothes as they passed, and vines seemed to contort and tangle at their feet, waiting for the opportune moment to trip them into the undergrowth. Whether they'd be seen again or not, Rise couldn't say.

All she knew for sure was that she'd seen neither Astaire nor the supposedly resurrected Sif for long enough that her bottom lip was running out of fresh spots to bite. Her line of sight twisted and turned constantly, trying to slice away the darkness long enough to catch a glimpse of Astaire or Sif between the infinitely expanding trees.

Finally, a clearing. Some small proof that the forest wasn't just an infinite loop of trees and malicious greenery. For the briefest of moments, everyone stopped to quickly catch their respective breaths.

Looking around her, Rise could see the forest taking its toll on everyone. Yukiko's jumper and tights were poked with holes and loose threads. Teddie's fur was unkempt and bedraggled. Kanji's jacket had seemingly been lost altogether. Chie was putting all her weight on one leg, her other one riddled by parallel, bloody scratches. No matter who she looked at, they hardly seemed to be in fighting shape. If they were jumped now, Rse predicted it wouldn't be long before it became _very_ one-sided.

...She couldn't let that happen. Blue light enveloped the clearing as Rise evoked Kouzeon above her and quickly set about examining their surroundings again, beating away the pain in her side. She had bigger things to worry about right now.

That the forest appeared to be one singular, angry red stain on her vision hadn't changed. What _had_ changed was that the angry blotch condensed and focused down to one area. The red turned to orange, to yellow, to a single white dot, as it homed in on what she could only assume was the source of the Forest's wrath. Thankfully, it was nowhere near herself and her friends, but whatever it was, it moved horrifyingly quickly, darting from spot to spot with hardly any delay between jumps.

The reason for its jumping was easy to see. Because Astaire's dot was dancing right alongside it.

"Oh no…" Rise felt her anxiety amplify tenfold as she bunched up the bottom of her shirt in tight fists. The forest's core, whatever it was, struck and snapped at Astaire's dot without pause, as Astaire himself seemed to just barely edge out of the way every time. The closer both dots drew together, the quicker Rise felt her heart beat. "C'mon, you can do it… You can do it…"

"Do you see where that raggedy old wolf ran off to, Rise-chan?" Teddie asked, plopping innocent up beside her.

"...I think so." RIse said regrettably, grinding her teeth as she watched the bout between two radar blips continue. He'd be alright, wouldn't he? He'd lasted this long on his own, not to mention he'd even fought something like this before! Yeah, he could do it, of course he could!

Astaire's dot suddenly shot in one direction before coming to an immediate stop. The forest's core stopped darting about.

Oh no. No no no no no.

Astaire's dot didn't move.

The forest's dot left him behind. It was homing in towards them. Quickly.

Swatting away her deep-set concern wasn't easy, but Rise did it all the same as she whipped her visor off. "Guys, it's coming for us! Ten O'Clock!" She shouted, retreating behind the rest of the team as they shook themselves and readied their weapons.

'Sif' emerged from the trees with a mighty leap, presenting herself in all her former glory to the team as the moonlight gave her patches of silver fur an almost luminescent glow amongst the parts where nature had reclaimed her. Unable to howl for the muzzle of thorns around her mouth, she settled for a low growl a she lowered her head.

It escaped nobody's notice that the thick rust of Artorias' Greatsword had been stained red around the edges. It didn't escape Rise's notice that Astaire's claymore was lodged in the gnarled wooden tangles of Sif's leg.

"S-Shit, that's…" Kanji began, eyes wide with horror as he looked upon 'Sif's' mottled, repurposed body.

"Cruel." Yu finished for him, clenching his sword tightly as his Arcana card floated down to meet him. "We'll be doing her a favour. Nobody hold back." He said grimly as his card gave way under his clenched fist, filling the clearing with golden light as Izanagi-no-Okami was evoked behind him. The Persona took a low stance, levelling its golden twinblade with Artorias' sword in 'Sif's' mouth.

Tension was rife in the air. Both opponents stared each other down, weapons primed like the beginning of a Mexican standoff. All that was left was for one of them to move first.

* * *

Useless whelp. Ingrate. Foolish bloody… fool. This was supposed to be something he could handle on his own, just like before.

Yet as Astaire slowly bled out, a thick gash torn down his thigh where 'Sif' had caught him mid-roll, he reminded himself that this wasn't like before, not by a long shot. Sif hadn't been possessed by the entire forest, nor was he wearing these bloody stupid glasses and fighting with that bloody useless claymore. He'd been asking for trouble from the start, and the forest had dealt him a double portion.

Now 'Sif' was gone. No doubt going to hound everyone else into submission as 'she' had done him. With greater numbers they might've had a chance. Or perhaps less of one.

As the cold of the rocks and grass underneath seeped deeper into his skin, and the blood coursed down his leg ever more readily, the want to drink from the Estus Flask again was palpable. But in truth, Astaire was at odds. He'd been running through his short supply of healing elixir far, _far_ quicker than he'd have liked. It was a rate which, if he kept it up, would soon have him left high and dry.

If he didn't have any Estus, there was no doubt in Astaire's mind that he would wind up needing it at only the most crucial of moments. And then who would protect Rise from whatever had slain him?

Not that lying about lamenting the situation was helping her much right now either. But there was one more option. One which Astaire was desperately placing his bets on in the hopes it would pay out. He clamped his eyes shut to dull the pain and channelled his faith as best he could.

Just before his body fell instantly limp, Astaire smiled.

"Kind _and_ clever. Thank the Gods."

* * *

The once Great Grey Wolf was naught but a blur as it danced around the moonlit clearing, completely outnumbered and yet utterly in control of the encounter. As many massive, lunging swings that Takeji-Zaiten threw out, or as many deadly, darting dives that Yamato Sumeragi made, they were unable to connect beyond meagre glancing blows.

Which, Kanji had to admit, was pretty damn impressive for a bigass wooden wolf with a rusty old sword in its mouth and a claymore stuck in one leg.

"Shit, not again!" Kanji swore, ducking behind his greatshield as 'Sif' spun on the spot, spicing at everything around it in a deadly spiral, kicking shaved pieces of grass into the air. No sooner had she stopped, she leapt back amongst the trees and disappeared without a trace. "Damnit! Stupid wolf doesn't know how to sit still!"

Yu looked to Yosuke in the middle of the clearing. He was fast. The fastest out of all of them. If anyone stood a chance of hitting the Wolf, it was him.

"...There you are!" Yosuke bellowed as he spun around, Arcana card already smashed as 'Sif' dove out of the bushes behind him. Takehaya Susano-o collided in mid-air, catching the incoming sword in both hands. Finally, something resembling a hit! Yosuke's adrenaline peaked as he wound up Susano-o for another attack, before 'Sif' lashed out with her back legs, reducing the Persona to fragments and dropping her to the forest floor. "Augh, come on! Rise, what can we do to hit this thing?!" Yosuke shouted in frustration, casting a glance over to the bushes where Rise had hunkered down.

"You idiot, if she summons Kouzeon that's just gonna- _w-woah!"_ Chie began before 'Sif' lunged at her, forcing her to dodge roll off to her right side. "-She's just gonna have _that_ happen! It'll be like painting a target on her back!"

As if on cue, Rise stood up and evoked Kouzeon above her, immediately drawing 'Sif's' attention as her head twisted around to launch a glare.

"R-Rise-chan?! Didn't you hear what I _just said?!"_ Chie's eyes bulged out of their sockets as 'Sif' suddenly sprinted off, blade levelled for Rise's head. _"Quick, someone stop that thing!"_

But again, the Wolf's speed was ferocious. It seemed as though everyone's cards had only just shattered before 'Sif' was within striking distance of Rise. Her visor disappeared just in time for her to meet her silver-coated doom eye-to-eye. Moonlight ran down the rough, rusted surface of Artorias' Greatsword as 'Sif' raised it to the sky.

And then, something happened. There was a sound of branches snapping and flesh squelching, followed by a muffled, pained whimper from 'Sif' as one of her front legs fell beneath her. Combined with the momentum from the sprint. It resulted in the once Great Grey Wolf tumbling messily and rolling to a stop on the ground.

From the bushes, standing alongside one massive footprint in the soil, a figure composed entirely of pure white light arose to their full height. They shook the snapped shards of branches that had left Sif's leg off their pauldrons, slinging their retrieved claymore over their shoulder with a satisfied grin as they pushed their luminescent glasses up their nose, closer to their pupil-less, empty eyes.

They looked down at Rise, who looked back up with stars in her eyes and an ecstatic grin. "That was so awesome! Nice one, Astaire-kun!" She chirped happily, summoning Kouzeon back to her aid immediately. "There's an opening! Someone take it before it gets back up again!"

Unfortunately, one development was being somewhat overwritten by another. The rest of the team balked in disbelief at the empty-eyed beacon of light that stared back at them, flapping its lips wordlessly and motioning towards the downed wolf. "I don't believe it! Stairry-kun died and became a ghost!" Teddie shouted, his eyes nearly rolling out of his head.

"Damn it, someone make a move!" Rise insisted, stomping a foot in frustration as 'Sif' began to regain her bearings, shaking her head and rising on one front leg.

Sensing the urgency, Naoto quickly pulled back the hammer on her revolver and shattered her Arcana card, sending Yamato Sumeragi to impede 'Sif's' recovery. Astaire's efforts in retrieving his sword hadn't been for naught, as the leg he'd pulled it from had thinned tremendously. Before the branches writhing under Sif's skin could move to seal the opening, Yamato Sumeragi was on the scene. With one clean cut, 'Sif' let out another pained, muffled whine and fell to the ground. She was down to three legs.

"Alright, Naoto! Try scamperin' around like _that_ , ya mutt!" Kanji shouted, pumping his free hand enthusiastically as Takeji Zaiten's card came down to meet him. "Lessee you dodge this _now!"_ With a flash of blue, Takeji Zaiten towered over the limping wolf, sword raised menacingly in the air. One hit and it'd clean the stupid dog's head right from its body.

Before the sword hit, there was a glint in one of Sif's dead eyes. Like a sweater pulled by a loose thread, she seemed to- Kanji settled for- _unwind,_ peeling away strip by strip before they dove under the surface, like an army of earthworms fleeing a bird. In a flash, 'Sif' was gone. Branches, fur, sword and all.

The stricken look on Astaire's Phantom's face was enough to gather that this wasn't exactly par for the course. He silently, frantically twisted around on the spot, checking every angle for a potential attack. What exactly was going on he couldn't say- rather literally- but it didn't look like any death he'd seen before. This wasn't over.

A sharp quake underfoot was the precursor to trouble. The ground exploded upward as 'Sif' erupted from underground, greatsword primed to strike Naoto from below. Only an instinctive dodge backwards stopped her from being completely cut in two. It did not, however, save her from being entirely wounded. The force of 'Sif's' arrival sent her flying backwards, thrashing her against one of the myriad trees. The impact was forceful enough to throw her hat from her head and leave her limp at the tree's roots.

No goddamn way. It was burying underground just as fast as it could run. Worse yet, one look at the leg Naoto had sliced showed that _it had entirely grown back._ It was crafted entirely from gnarled branches which only slightly resembled a wolf's paw, but it was enough to stand on.

"You mangy bitch! _I'M GONNA BREAK THE REST OF YOUR GODDAMN LEGS TOO!"_ Kanji roared at the Wolf, Drakeshield at the ready to pulverise the absolute _shit_ out of every single piece of it. It wasn't the smartest move, but considering what the Wolf had done to Naoto, logic had long since given way to fury.

"Kanji's enraged! Someone stop him before he gets hurt!" Rise called out, looking mainly at Yu, carrier of every status healing item under the sun, and Astaire, carrier of every status healing item from under a different sun.

The unfortunate reality of the matter was twofold. Yu hadn't needed healing items for months, not with Izanagi-no-Okami at the wheel, and mind-clouding anger wasn't exactly easily cured with Lordran's arsenal.

The next best thing, then, was to ensure Kanji wouldn't be getting pissed all on his own. The longer Astaire looked at the facsimile of the Great Grey Wolf, the angrier he found himself becoming. Not waiting to see another friend get launched into the trees, he sprinted off from his position beside Rise and aimed for Sif's wooden leg.

'Sif' twisted in place, sword lowered in a manner all too familiar to Astaire. His lips flapped uselessly as he tried to shout out to Kanji, to warn him: _"It's going to use a spin attack!"_ Alas, Astaire's phantom words never even left him, much less reached Kanji's ears.

Kanji watched 'Sif' lower her sword right before it began rushing towards his exposed left side, howling coldly as it parted the air around it.

Adrenaline and anger were a powerful combination, as shown when Kanji stared down the sword rushing towards him and flung his shield around to meet it fearlessly. " _FUCK YOU!"_ He bellowed as the impact rocked through his shoulder and around his entire body. A direct hit from that massive sword was no trifling matter.

And yet, he hadn't budged an inch. 'Sif' had stopped dead in her tracks, whining as the momentum from her swing argued with the sudden stop of the sword, wrenching her thorned muzzle about painfully.

Gods above, could _nothing_ move him? Some small part of Astaire almost regretted giving him the Drakeshield in the first place, its stability looked to be the stuff of legends. Ah well. If he couldn't be the shield, he could most certainly be the sword. Taking 'Sif's' opening in stride, Astaire's Phantom leapt into the fray and launched a mighty swing at Sif's wooden leg, shattering it into pieces and knocking her down a peg all at once.

Not content to be shown up, Kanji was quick to join him, shoving the bottom on his shield through 'Sif's' other leg, crushing branch and bone both like they were made of paper. The wolf's head thumped into the ground, anchored by the weight of a Greatsword that it could no longer hold. But if it growing another gnarled leg was any indication, it wouldn't stay like that for long.

"I'll show you what happens to puppies who misbehave!" Teddie boasted as Kamui-Moshiri flashed into existence above him. As goofy looking as the weird, rocket-shaped, rainbow-faced Persona was, something about it chilled Astaire to the bone as it leered at the downed wolf's body. "Take this! _Bufudyne!"_

Oh, it was a _literal_ chill. Right.

Mere feet from Kanji and Astaire both, 'Sif's' writhing and moaning were cut off as a massive block of ice encased her head and front legs with an icy _snap._ Though her back legs kicked out and flailed ungraciously, the front half remained perfectly encased and still.

Cue Teddie rubbing his nose confidently with a large grin plastered on his face. "Eheheh! That'll teach you! Should we go for an All-Out Attack, Sensei?!" He called over to Yu, preemptively summoning Kamui-Moshiri again in ardent anticipation of a 'Yes.'

Then there was a crack.

The answer had been on the tip of Yu's tongue before the noise had broken his focus, leaving his hand suspended mid-summon. The back half of 'Sif's' body had gained solid footing on the ground beneath it, heaving and struggling against the ice that encased it. Worse yet, the back half pulled out a little further with each tug.

Which was… actually a bit confusing upon closer inspection. The back half was making headway, but the front half remained in place. The mottled, matted fur that still clung to the formerly-Great Grey Wolf's skin budged nary a hair. How the hell did _that_ work?

Astaire regretted the question as quickly as he'd thought it, as the answer unfolded before his horrified eyes. Sif's skin on her front half began to pull inward in places, undulating in time with the back half's heaves. Her dead eyes, encrusted with ice, lolled lifelessly in their sockets as she continued to deform ever more violently.

"Oh my god…" Rise brought a hand to her mouth and _had_ to avert her eyes as her stomach protested against sight laid before her. It may have been a massive zombie dog that'd been trying to kill them, but _nothing_ deserved _that._ "I think I'm gonna be sick…"

She was far from the only one. Taking their eyes off the enemy hardly seemed like the wisest idea, but… God, who _could_ stomach such a sight? Even Astaire -who keenly remembered wading through Blighttown and having _actual waste_ seep into his wounds- looked disgusted to his core.

Then came the final straw. A sickening, wet crunching sound grabbed everyone's gag reflex as Sif's flesh began to rupture and tear in the middle. Black, rotting viscera spilled out between the myriad branches lining her dead insides, filling the air with the rancid odour of decomposition. It was as though 'sickly sweet' had an affair with a year old bucket of fish, and it was _ungodly._ Ungodly enough that Yosuke could no longer contain himself. He darted for a nearby bush, covering his mouth and clutching at his stomach as everyone heaved around him. Good _god,_ it was foul.

Fortunately, or _un_ fortunately, Astaire, Kanji and Yu fended off the urge to vomit as they saw what the horror was in aid of. Inside the ice, Sif's skin went slack like a wolfskin rug, sockets now bereft of eyes. With one last pull, the back half of the wolf liberated itself from the front.

The back half of Sif slipped off its wearers frame as they shook themselves free of her remains. No longer content to simply dress as a wolf, the twisted, thorned branches underneath had saw fit to mould itself in the image of one instead.

Thick, viscous black blood stained the newly-regenerated wooden legs of the Wolf. Its branches and twigs slithered around like snakes, coiling around and filling in the gaps that losing Sif's body had left. Though the body ended at the neck, it was easy to see that the foundations were being laid to craft itself an entirely new head, thorned teeth and all. The wolf staggered and lolled on the spot like a newborn trying to find its legs, no doubt encumbered by the lack of eyes or a nose.

The bloody thing simply refused to die. It was as tenacious and powerful as the trees that had birthed it. That being said, the biggest counter to tenacity was yet more tenacity, and Astaire felt his rile up more strongly than ever before. He slipped the White Seance Ring on his finger, felt the memories of his magic flood his brain, and picked out one from among the crowd.

With a silent cry he engulfed his hand in fire and launched it at the Wolf's developing head. It hadn't the mouth to howl in pain, but it flailed and shook as the fire exploded on impact. Evidently, losing its furskin cover had been more a curse than a blessing.

Being naught but pyromancy, the flames quickly fizzled out. As they faded, a low growl emanated from within the smoke and charred branches.

Oh, Hell.

"I think you just pissed it off, man." Kanji said bluntly, raising his shield and backing off towards the rest of the team carefully.

Astaire shot him a look which Kanji interpreted to mean "No shit." in response.

"Everyone brace yourselves, this isn't over!" Yu cried out, fishing through the recesses of his soul for the right Persona for the job. "Rise, what's different about it now?!"

The Wolf seemed more and more lucid by the second. So much so that Rise feared it might lunge for everyone at any second. Her fears… didn't _quell,_ exactly, but shifted focus as Astaire blasted the Wolf with another Great Fireball, turning its quickly-forming head toward him with malice.

She had to be quick. Kouzeon was up in a flash. "Okay, uh… Its defences are down, _way_ down! Plus it's weak to fire! A few solid hits should do it!" Finally, some good news! Too bad it wasn't to last. "...But it's speed and attack are way, _way_ up too. It's gonna be even faster than-"

Rise was found caught short as she briefly exited her analysis mode to view everyone's individual stats. Just in time to see Astaire's blip on her radar suddenly become eclipsed by the wolf's. Lifting her visor, fear overtook her as she watched Astaire's claymore drop and embed in the ground. The Wolf had him in its newly-formed jaws, and bit down on his torso as it lifted him up. As much as he flailed and struggled, he wasn't getting away.

Just as Astaire brought his hand up to launch another Great Fireball at point-blank range, the Wolf reacted without mercy. His jaw opened with a scream that never left him as the Wolf's fangs suddenly caved in his chest and snapped shut. He shattered like glass, scattering into miniscule, glowing fragments that fizzled out in the air.

"W-We have a plan, don't we?" Yosuke asked hopefully, backing off and eyeing up the wooden Wolf fearfully. _Holy shit he'd disintegrated him. Was he dead for real?_ Concern attracted his eyes to Rise, who'd covered her mouth and watched everything go down with wide, wet eyes.

"Yu-kun…?" Yukiko piped up, backing up in lockstep with Yosuke as the wolf took a single step towards them, glowering menacingly with a fully-formed face, complete with beady, soulless eyes as swiped from Sif's corpse.

Internally, Yu's mind raced. If this thing was even faster than before, there was no hope in hell of them even _seeing_ it, never mind catching or touching it. Combine that with hitting harder to boot, and they'd be lucky if they weren't all killed within the same second.

There had to be a way. There was _always_ a way. Always.

As Yosuke and Yukiko passed either side of him, a bolt of inspiration descended from the heavens and imparted an idea upon Yu's mind.

"Yeah. I think I've got a plan."

* * *

Phantom death was to dying as a sigh was to a scream. It wasn't quite as dramatic, but it was effective enough to be felt afterwards.

And _boy_ did Astaire feel it. The lingering sting of the Wolf's thorned jaw around his torso prickled his skin, as though he'd been stabbed with a thousand tiny needles all at once. As if having the gash in his leg hadn't been bad enough, ignoring the fact that it actually stung _worse_ now, having been left to stew for a while.

Gods, what he wouldn't have given for a bonfire. This 'rationing out Estus' nonsense was a nightmare.

Astaire clenched his jaw as he pushed himself upright off the ground, biting against the protests from his leg and the stiffness from everywhere else. For Gwyn's sake, he needed to pull himself together. He'd have plenty of time to lie idle when he was dead. Before then, there was no excuse. He retrieved a simple dagger and stabbed it into the trunk of a nearby tree, using it as a handhold to pull himself to his feet.

Easier said than done, as he quickly found out. That gash in his thigh was being _very_ disagreeable, and forced him into a reluctant limp. Biting his lip against the pain, almost hard enough to draw blood, Astaire shook his head roughly. _Come on, you flaming great lummox! Everyone needed all the help they could get with that Wolf on the loose!_

...Again, easier said than done. He hadn't a clue where he was in relation to everyone else, and his leg wasn't exactly in 'aimless wandering' condition. At this rate he'd never find them. If only there were some sort of sign. A flash of blue as someone summoned their Persona, or one of those magnificent Megidolaon explosions of Mr. Narukami's. Something. _Anything._

An unfamiliar smell greeted Astaire's nose. He sniffed on instinct.

Smoke.

Far from a flash of blue, Astaire became wise to a growing orange glow in the distance, growing brighter with every passing second. It was accompanied by a sudden gust of wind that only fed and brightened the glow even further.

Good Gods. They'd lit the forest on fire. While he- no, while _they-_ were all still inside it.

Before he'd even registered that he was moving, Astaire fought against the pain in his leg and was weaving doggedly through the trees. The flames grew hotter and higher, licking at the branches of neighbouring trees hungrily, which seemed to vibrate and writhe as though pained and alive.

Hang on. Maybe they _hadn't_ gone completely mental. This was the perfect environment to fight a giant wooden wolf in, after all. One wrong move and they'd be bonfire kindling. It was a risky move, but it was riskier for one party than it was for the other. Why, for all he knew, perhaps the wolf _was_ kindling already! Maybe he'd simply meet up with everyone and make good his escape!

Him and his big mouth.

From within the fiery flora, the merciless face of the wooden Wolf lunged through the flames, fully engulfed and burning, but still out for blood. Its arrival showered Astaire with burning wooden chunks, which bit at his skin on contact with a chorus of painful _hiss_ es.

It was desperate. The Wolf knew its time was short before it ran out of wood to burn. The only thing left to do, then, was take someone down with it. And the stench of blood and imminent death lay strongest around Astaire.

"Don't underestimate me, you mutt." Astaire said through gritted teeth as he reached into his coat. He pointed the fun end of his retrieved crossbow at the Wolf's snout as the fire set its dangerous eyes aglow.

The wind kicked up again, more forcefully now. Had he guessed, it was liable to be either Mr. Narukami or Mr. Hanamura's doing. Either way, they were alive. That meant that every second he bought with his tiny, ineffectual crossbow would be a second more in aid of their escape.

He knew he hadn't a chance against the beast as it stood. Not with this useless contraption in his hand. But if it put the tiniest distance more between this hellhound and the Team, then-

"Stopped moving already?! Let me give you a hand with that!' Chie cried as her Persona punted the Wolf in the side, opening a wide hole open as the impact decimated the deteriorating wood.

Astaire's face went blank as his crossbow dropped to his side. So much for putting distance between them.

"Yay, Stairry-kun's alive!" Teddie rejoiced as he bounded through the few trees not yet set alight, wrapping his arms around a stunned Astaire's torso as he glomped him from the side. "I knew you couldn't really have been a ghost! Rise-chan would've been crying her eyes out a lot harder otherwise!"

Teddie quickly jolted to the ground as Rise appeared behind him and launched a punch at his back. "S-Stupid bear, I knew he was okay, I wasn't crying!" She insisted as the fire's light highlighted the wet streaks down her face and her glistening eyes.

"You ain't foolin' anyone Rise, just hurry up already!" Kanji called over brusquely, carrying a limp-yet-displeased-looking Naoto over his shoulder, weakly muttering something about putting her down. "We gotta go, _now!"_

As much as Astaire's leg wanted him to ask somebody to fix it up, Kanji was right. From within the spreading fire, the burning Wolf ignored the gaping hole in its side and lowered itself to the ground, eyeing up the Team from behind as they all sprinted through the ensuing inferno in search of an exit.

Damn it all, he _hated_ running from a fight. "He's right, we can't stay here! Let's get a move on!" Although Astaire said it, he didn't leave Rise much choice as he whisked her up in his arms again and began following Naoto's bobbing head over Kanji's shoulder.

Rise might've found herself getting used to this whole 'bridal-carrying' thing if they hadn't been surrounded by as close to Hell as she'd ever witnessed. The embers somewhat overpowered her embarrassment.

The heat was unbearable. It brought an instant sweat to the skin of everyone present, and was so intense that not even catching fire themselves seemed like it would come close. Nobody could keep their eyes open for a measure beyond a few seconds as the heatwave assaulted them from every angle.

Rise's worst fears soon came to light. Yes, the fire was spreading, and it seemed like the only way one could conceivably kill an entire forest that was out to get you. But I'd said forest was going down, it was going to go kicking and screaming.

Branches, vines, smaller trees and bushes, everything save for the ground itself lashed out fiercely at the team as the burning visage of the Wolf loomed behind them. Yu shielded his face with his free arm, but that only opened up everywhere else for attack. He grunted and cried out as thick, fiery whips lashed away at his torso without mercy.

Their escape was accompanied by a cacophony of pain and anguish. Sections of Yukiko's jumper were burnt and singed away, Yosuke patted down the flames that kept adhering to his blazer, Chie's exposed legs bore red, angry burns which brought tears to her eyes. As much as it hurt, as often as they cried out in pain, everyone doggedly kept charging through the hellscape surrounding them.

The only ones who didn't cry out were Naoto, slowly regaining her stamina over Kanji's shoulder, which he'd prioritised protecting over himself, and Rise, who Astaire had huddled so closely into himself that there was barely any of her to strike in the first place. She could hear his heart punch her in the cheek with every step he took, feel the laboured rise and fall of his chest as he gulped down lungfuls of smoke-riddled air.

She couldn't forget that it wasn't just him. Everyone was giving it their all just to survive, and from the sounds of it- _"Agh, Hell!"_ -it was taking its toll.

Even with their attention squarely set in front of them, everyone could hear the Wolf gaining on them. They could feel it underfoot, thundering after them with an undying lust for blood. But if it stopped them for even a second, that could be all that stood between them and an early grave. To call the situation dire didn't do it justice.

That was, until Kanji heard something over his shoulder. The click of a revolver's hammer. "P-Persona…" Naoto said weakly, summoning Yamato Sumeragi with a bang. She was the only one who could face the Wolf head-on. She had to make this count. In a flash, her Persona darted under the wolf, sword primed to strike. In four quick darting motions, the Wolf's leg joints exploded, the fire having weakened them severely. All at once the Wolf plummeted to the ground and crashed to a halt.

Opportunity knocking, Kanji wheeled around on a heel with his Arcana card in-hand. "How's revenge taste, asshole?! _CRUSH 'EM, TAKEJI-ZAITEN!"_ He roared hoarsely as the silhouette of his Persona loomed over him, backed by the immense flames surrounding him. With a single strike, powerful enough to rock the forest and send fiery branches raining from above, Kanji obliterated the Wolf into smithereens. The thousands of burning fragments that it broke into sailed into the fiery undergrowth without resistance.

"Let's see you grow _that_ back." Kanji sneered. "Senpai, this thing's dead! Ge-" Kanji stopped to cough into his arm, the smoke going to town on his insides. "Get us outta here!"

He needed say no more. "Everyone gather around me, now!" He barked, cringing internally as he saw the quickly deteriorating state of his friends, charred, burnt, and gasping for the slightest hint of fresh air. He had the Goho-M in his hand before he'd even thought about it. As soon as Astaire and Rise joined up, he clasped his hand tightly and let the light take them.

* * *

To say everyone had never felt worse was the understatement of the century.

The moment the Goho-M deposited everyone at Firelink Clearing, everyone crumpled to the ground. Yu fell to a knee, the full-bodied sweat he'd worked up suddenly chilling him to the bone thanks to the comparatively freezing environment. He cast his eyes around his friends with worry.

Everyone had fallen, gasping at the fresh air while coughing and spluttering roughly. Their innards felt like they'd been set alight, and those whose didn't instead felt them lurch in protest of the fiery hell they'd been dragged through. That they weren't all staring at their breakfasts again was a wonder in and of itself.

Yosuke's blazer had almost been burnt away to nothing. Where the flaming branches had scratched Chie's legs, horrific, painful looking burns lay. Yukiko's clothes were singed and burnt, as was a good portion of her hair. Kanji's shirt may as well have not been on him. Naoto's cap was riddled with charred holes and she'd since discarded her blazer, what little was left to discard. Teddie lay heaving, gasping for air greedily as he crawled out of his suit. His blonde hair stuck to his head, dampening as he wiped his brow.

Finally, somehow, Rise looked completely fine, save for holding her head and lolling on her knees. Her clothes and hair weren't singed, and not a hint of ash or char had gotten to her.

Astaire was another story. The blue cloth of his Elite Knight armour was burnt around the edges, the metal surrounding it having been blackened from the heat. Worse yet was the open wound on his thigh, which must've been bad before the running, never mind during or after. It flared up and swole to a vicious red which made Yu feel sore just looking at it.

Overall, not the best state to be in.

Astaire was the first to keel over, clutching his chest and heaving heavily, forehead pressed to the ground. "Hey… Hey, c'mon, are you alright…?" Rise asked him, sounding as though she was going to fall asleep at a moment's notice. Her eyes were only half open, and the hand she raised to Astaire did so slowly. "Senpai or someone can make this better, don't worry…"

As Rise's sluggish eyes met Yu's own, he nodded affirmatively. The sooner everyone healed up, the better they'd feel. An Arcana card appeared, which he deftly twirled between his fingers as he swapped Personas. "Ishtar. _Mediarahan."_ Yu said quietly.

Even as the welcome wave of healing energy cascaded around everyone, Yu could tell something wasn't right. Their wounds closed, but only so far, and only so quickly. Everyone seemed to regain their respective breaths and become a lot more alert, but it wasn't instantaneous. And as before, Astaire cried out in anguish, as though his wound were getting worse rather than trying to seal over.

What the hell was happening to their healing magic?

Yu wasn't left with time to ponder as two weights on his shoulder spun him around violently. _"Are you completely off your fucking rocker, Narukami?!"_ Astaire yelled, his voice distorted. He was missing his glasses. They must have fallen off when he was on the ground, giving way to a familiar, unfriendly shade of glowing yellow. _"What the hell did you think you were playing at?!"_

Yu's knee met the Shadow's stomach and forced him back. As he raised its head to fume further, he found his neck levelled with the blade of Izanagi-no-Okami from above. "Astaire-san. Put your glasses back on."

" _Oh, pull the other one! What the hell possessed you into thinking that lighting the whole bloody place on fire was even a REMOTELY good idea?! You could've gotten me or Ms. Kujikawa killed!"_ The Shadow yelled, undaunted.

Wait, his Shadow still called Rise 'Ms. Kujikawa'? Hm. That might've been be worth noting for later. "I knew we could all handle it. It was the best method we had of safely killing that Wolf." Yu said calmly.

" _You call this handling it?! You call this SAFE?! Exactly how dense do you think I am?!"_ Astaire's Shadow said less calmly, pointing accusingly at the rest of the team. _"Look at the state of everyone! God knows if I hadn't woken up when I did you'd have burnt me up and all! And then there was that brilliant escape of yours!"_ The Shadow ignored Izanagi-no-Okami's weapon and took a step closer to Yu. _"I suppose you planned for this too, did you?! You just knew that everyone could survive getting lashed with fire like dogs ahead of time, right?!"_

Yu didn't retreat as the Shadow stepped forward. He simply stared him dead in the eye. "Calm down. Everything's alright no-"

" _Like hell is everything alright!"_ Astaire's Shadow bellowed. From within his coat he easily produced the intimidating mass of metal known as the Demon's Great Hammer. The ground shook as the head impacted off the mossy stone underfoot. He gripped the handle with both hands. _"I don't give a damn how good of a leader you are, OR how much you assume you can handle! The moment you put Ms. Kujikawa in harm's way I'll flatten you like a-!"_

The Shadow's tirade ended as he suddenly went completely limp, plummeting face-first into the ground and impacting with a _crack._

One hand on his katana, Yu eyed up the newly-limp body and took a few cautious steps toward him. If he was playing dead and hoping to get the first hit in somehow, he had another thing coming.

"Wait, hold it!" Rise interjected as she rushed in, ultramarine glasses in hand. "I think we've got a few seconds before anything happens! Help me roll him over!" She commanded Yu as she knelt down to the Shadow's side, occasionally peeking behind her towards a white, shining symbol glowing between the blades of grass. Whatever it was, Yu told himself he'd figure it out later. He heaved his angry adversary over as commanded- heavy though he was- and cringed at the crooked angle his nose now sat at.

His peaceful expression betrayed his prior anger. Without a word, Rise flicked his glasses out and aimed for his eyes. While she did, Yu moved back on reflex, hand to sword. It might've been a trick of the eye or mind, but he swore, for the slightest moment, that he'd seen one of Astaire's fingers twitch.

Rise sighed after slipping Astaire's glasses on, one hand on her chest and the other on what Yu recognised as the white lump of stone Astaire had given her earlier. "Phew. Glad we're not going through _that_ again." The less she saw of her friends fighting one another and bleeding out afterwards, the better.

Her sentiment was echoed by the newly-summoned phantom of Astaire, who knelt down next to her and tapped the glasses now adorning his face. Lacking words, he gave her a smile and a thankful nod, which she all too eagerly returned.

"Huh. Didn't see _that_ coming." Yosuke commented idly as he walked over, leaning over to examine Astaire's lifeless body. "Guess even Astaire-san's Shadow wants to keep Rise safe. Weird."

As weird as it seemed, it didn't stop Rise's cheeks from flaring up pink. _Holy crap he was right._ She hadn't even thought about it, but it _had_ happened. Astaire's Shadow stood up for her. And his Shadow _was_ some version of his true self...

She turned to see what Phantom Astaire made of the situation, only to see he was hiding his face behind a glowing hand. If he hadn't been white all over, his own cheeks would've been glowing too. That yellow-eyed cad, making things so ruddy difficult...

"So how's this whole deal-" Chie pointed between Astaire's Phantom and his body. "-work anyhow? We saw you get shattered like glass, Rise-chan looked like she was gonna-"

" _Chie-senpai!"_ Rise squeaked, shaking her head so quickly that her twintails couldn't keep up.

She _did_ stop- much to Rise's relief- but she still looked like she wanted an explanation. Which wasn't easy to do when one couldn't speak. Not being well-versed with how to play Charades and frustrated that she'd chosen _now_ of all bloody times to ask, Astaire's Phantom rubbed his chin in thought.

Finally, an idea. From the phantasmal doppelganger of his bottomless box, Astaire produced a simple yet sharp dagger and held up his other, free hand. Without a moment's hesitation, he swept the blade down across his open palm and screwed his face up at the ensuing pain. That and the onslaught of cringing from most of the girls.

Rather than blood, a fine particulate substance seeped out of the wound instead, almost as though Astaire's Phantom were filled with glowing white sand. Clasping the pain in his palm tightly, Astaire then jabbed the knife down towards his real body. Specifically, the outstretched palm at its side. It was completely bare. No wound at all. However, as Astaire knelt down and pricked a very small hole in one of his fingers, a similar stream of sand-like light began to drip from his Phantom's finger.

"So your Phantom can die, but your body can't unless someone does something to it..." Yukiko summarised, looking on with interest as Astaire began fishing for his Black Separation Crystal. "That sounds like it could be useful! It's like getting a second try if you mess up the first time!"

Sinking into the ground, Astaire's Phantom disappeared right as his physical body's eyes flew open, reverted back to their normal shade of orange. "That'd be right and dandy if it didn't leave my normal body wide open. One dagger in the right place and a Phantom is all I'd be." He said, licking the drop of blood beading up on his finger as he righted himself.

"No problem! You could give Astaire-kun's body a piggyback, couldn't you Kanji?" Rise asked more cheerfully, now that nobody was coughing up their insides over the ground. She gave Kanji a playful shove in the side as he joined the group, recoiling at the touch of skin she met. His shirt was burnt and damaged enough that only a few strands were holding it together, leaving his surprisingly defined muscles on show.

She noted, however, that Kanji said nothing. Not in reaction to her poking, nor her question. He fixed his gaze on the ground and creased his brow, looking troubled. "Kanji-kun? Are you well?" Naoto asked from his side.

If he wasn't, he must've been the only one, because it suddenly seemed all eyes were on him.

With a fist clenched at his side, Kanji began to speak. "Senpai, I… I kinda…" He struggled to begin. He paused to take a deep breath before he forced himself into speaking. "I think that asshole Shadow was right."

Amongst the wave of surprised voices, none were louder than Astaire's. "Y-You what?! Are you quite mad?!" He asked, eyes ablaze as he straightened his back and glared at Kanji. "How can you even _think_ such a thing?! Do you _know_ the kinds of things that hateful miscreant whispers in my ear every night?! He wishes nothing but harm upon everyone!"

" 'Cept for Rise, apparently." Kanji pointed out, sinking Astaire's expression in a heartbeat. "That ain't normal, man. Shadows are normally assholes, yeah, but I ain't never seen one try an' stick up for someone other than themselves. An' if you ask me…" He paused and scratched the back of his head, exhaling deeply. This didn't feel easy. "...Seems a little weird that a Shadow's more concerned about one of us than you seem to be, Senpai."

" _Excuse me."_ A bitter chill, worse than any blizzard, ran through Kanji like a spear as Yukiko spoke up, every part of her looking sharper enough to split an atom. "Yu-kun cares about us. _All_ of us. Don't even think of implying that he doesn't."

The sheer malice in Yukiko's voice was intimidating enough that everyone suddenly felt like backing away from her, Kanji included. If she was bad, Senpai was worse. His expression was stern and stony, but he couldn't get a proper reading off him. He could've been calm or ready to kick the absolute shit out of him for all he knew.

But goddamnit, every time he glanced towards Naoto, retaining a few bruises and looking dishevelled, some part of him got all riled back up inside. Insistence restored, Kanji spoke up again. "I-I ain't sayin' Senpai don't care about us! But would it have killed him to ask us all if burnin' the whole damn forest down was a good idea?! Shit nearly got us killed in there, and you just assumed we could do it like it was nothing!"

As much as anyone present may have wanted to retort in Yu's defense, there was no denying that Kanji had a point. A point which his shirt, Chie's legs, Yukiko's sweater and Yosuke's blazer all stood testament to. "Kanji-kun…" Naoto tried to intervene.

"Look, Senpai…" Kanji began, massaging his brow. It felt like he was beating the guy with a hockey stick in front of his friends, and it felt awful. "I… I can't just _not_ care when shit like Naoto nearly gettin' wrapped around a tree trunk and everyone gettin' burned alive is goin' on around me. I just can't. Maybe it's my bad, but…"

"Please do not speak on my behalf." Naoto sharply interrupted, hitting Kanji with a glare so heavy that he flinched. "Though… I do believe my thoughts on the matter align with Kanji-kun's." She said as her gaze softened. Perhaps she'd been a little harsher than was appropriate. "This course of action was not only dangerous, but uncharacteristically foolhardy, given your record with such matters, Senpai."

For a moment, it seemed as though the argument took the form of a set of scales, with Kanji and Astaire's Shadow trying to outweigh everyone else. However, as Naoto bolstered their argument with her own weight, things seemed to be shifting towards one side at a worrying rate.

"I… think I kinda agree too." Chie said, glancing at where her numerous wounds had been on her legs. "Between nearly getting crushed to death and this, it feels like everything's getting a lot more dangerous way, _way_ quickly."

"Feels a whole heck of a lot sorer compared to last year too. Almost makes me wish we were fighting Shadows again." Yosuke added, briefly looking towards Yu and realising that _he was siding with a Shadow over his partner._ "N-Not that that's your fault or anything! It's just the way things are!"

"And things _being the way they are_ , it seems foolish to automatically assume we're going to escape with our lives. Even if it's from a situation _you_ caused, Senpai." Naoto also added, her words seeming to split the air like a knife.

The scales had long since tipped. Where there had been silence and a vague sense of unease, voices of increasing concern and anxiety began to fill the void. Like a single crack in a mighty dam which was beginning to widen and spill forth ever more violently, threatening a deluge at any given moment.

"Have you all completely lost the plot?!" Astaire roared, long having discarded any sense of decorum or subtlety. His eyes danced between his teammates in front of him, widened in disbelief. "How can you even _dream_ of agreeing with a Shadow, much less _mine?!_ This is completely absurd!" He spun around on the spot to face Yu as he fumed. "Mr. Narukami, tell them! Tell them you're-!"

Astaire was cut short as he realised Yu wasn't returning his gaze. Nor anyone's, for that matter. His hair concealed his eyes as he stared at the ground, his upper lip twitching slightly under his unseen expression. "Senpai…?" Rise asked gently, drawing in closer and reaching out a hand.

"I have some thinking to do. I'll contact you all later." Yu spoke quietly. Then he began to walk off towards the trees, his hands buried in his pockets.

"Yu-kun? Hey, wait a minute!" Yukiko called after him as she quickly moved off to meet his side.

Everyone watched as their fearless leader walked off into the forest with his head hung low.

It wasn't a sight anyone was too accustomed to. Considering how a guilty weight began to compound inside their guts, it wasn't one they _wanted_ to grow accustomed to, either.

The source of their ire disappearing towards the statue grove, everyone quietly, awkwardly, began shifting towards the trees themselves, unsure of what to say to one another.

* * *

The next time anybody spoke, it was to say goodbye to Rise and Astaire respectively. They watched as they walked away between the parallel rows of statues before disappearing into the trees, silent all the while.

The whole situation beforehand had left a foul taste in both their mouths, one which was proving remarkably difficult to be rid of. For Astaire, it was the taste of knowing that the seeds of unrest were sown by his Shadow. For Rise, it was that they had been sown at all.

They were supposed to be better than this. Closer than this. It shouldn't have been this easy to rattle their chains.

"We should retire for the night. Today has been an ordeal." Astaire finally spoke up, turning his attention towards the exit TV behind them. It was easier than looking at Rise was proving to be, that was for sure.

From his side, Rise gave Astaire a look. A look which lingered as a thought ran about in her head. _To act, or to not act._ She eyed him up so intensely that he must've managed to feel her eyes burning the back of his skull. He turned with an eyebrow raised.

Screw it. _Act._

"Do you wish to say something, Ms. Kujikawa?"

"Yeah, but not to you."

Before Astaire could question her words, Rise stepped forward and swiped his glasses off his face. Immediately, his eyes gained a yellow gleam and his lips curled into a thin smile. _"Ah, gotcha. Getting tired of him as well, are you? Consider yourself lucky, you're not the one who has to rattle about in his head the whole time."_ Astaire's Shadow chuckled to himself, dipping his hands in his pockets.

"What was the big idea back there, huh?! Why did you say the things you said?!" Rise snapped angrily, feeling about ready to step forward and slap the Shadow across the face for what he'd done.

That he turned his nose up at her and frowned didn't help that feeling either. _"Weren't you listening? I said them because I was worried for you. I can think of a long list of sorts who I'd like to see stuck in a flaming deathtrap, and I can safely say you don't make the cut, not by a long shot."_

How someone could say they were worried about her and still be so _annoying,_ Rise wasn't sure. "Worried or not, don't you see what you've done?! Everyone's all worried and confused now!" She fumed, balling up her fists and squaring up to the Shadow. Which was easier said than done considering the height difference. "As for Senpai, I… I don't know how he feels. But it's probably not good…" She petered out as anger ebbed away to sorrow.

" _Jesus, what a melodramatic bunch you can be."_ Astaire's Shadow said as he shrugged and rolled his glowing eyes. _"Honestly, if it's that easy to make you all crack, I doubt the foundations were all that strong to start with."_

The sound of Rise slapping the Shadow across the face reverberated through the forest. Followed shortly by a growing, distorted laughter.

" _That doesn't sound like an argument to me! Guess I must be right on the money! Hah!"_ He sneered as he chuckled towards the canopy up above.

His laughter chipped away at Rise's spirit like a pickaxe. The longer she listened, the more downtrodden she began to feel. They shouldn't have been as easily jostled, not after all they'd been through. So how did explain this whole situation? Weren't they as close as she always thought they were? Or was it just in her head the whole time?

As the Shadow's laughter died down, he became aware of a different sound replacing it. The sound of light, teary sobs, courtesy of the short, cute girl next to him.

He sighed a distorted sigh as he put his hands behind his head. _"Ah, Christ. Alright, alright, calm down would you? Come on, hey."_ The Shadow said as he knelt down and placed his hands on Rise's shoulders. _"Dry your eyes, would you? I'll tell you what's wrong."_

This Shadow was… weird. Weird enough to Rise's mind that curiosity was what stopped her crying above all else. She sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes before meeting the Shadow's own. "Alright, I'm ready. Tell me what's wrong with us."

" _You're all bloody idiots."_

_SLAP._

" _Well that was just uncalled for, I'm trying to help you out here."_ Astaire's Shadow said as an angry, hand-shaped red mark coloured his other cheek. _"You're young and you're stupid, all of you. That's the long and short of it."_

"Young and…? You're not much older than the rest of us, you know! What gives you the right to-?!"

" _Don't act like you know how old I am, I know you don't."_ Astaire's Shadow said grimly. He paused for a moment to judge Rise's expression- looking shocked and a tad horrified- before speaking again. _"...But I'm nineteen, for the record. And what gives me the right is the amount of times I ended up getting killed over stupid bullshit like this in the past. Only difference this time is that you lot don't exactly have that option. So all that leaves is my unfortunate arse needing to drill it into your heads for you."_

The Shadow exhaled and walked over to one of the empty statue pedestals, sitting himself atop it with a hop. A motion which Rise, for some inexplicable reason, felt inclined to mirror. She plopped herself up beside him and gazed at the Shadow intently. This… this _was_ the same guy who'd tried to slaughter Yosuke and start a fight with Senpai, right? Because acting the way he was, it was like he was a completely different person. Intriguingly so.

" _When I first got thrown into Lordran, I wasn't half as strong as you and your friends are now. I was about as stupid, though. It's just the way your head works when you're young, I suppose. Haven't had enough close encounters with death for you to properly fear meeting them again."_ Astaire's Shadow mused, crossing his arms and fixing his gaze on the ground. _"Getting ground into the dirt by a Demon with a bloody great hammer quickly sorts that out."_

...Wait a minute. What did he mean by _'thrown into Lordran'?_

Rise wasn't left with time to ponder his words as Astaire's Shadow continued. _"Whatever you and your friends went through last year, this isn't it. It's like walking on dry land and then sinking up to your knees in a swamp. If you don't wise up and adapt properly, soon enough you'll be up to your neck. Your past victories don't guarantee your success now. Press your luck and you'll die just as quickly as I did."_

That sounded… sensible. Reasonable. Far too much so to have come from a Shadow. And yet, as Rise closely studied the hard, troubled, thoughtful expression on Astaire's face, his eyes and the light, distorted breaths through his nose left her without a doubt.

Something about this situation made Rise feel uncomfortable. "You're acting… kinda weird." She summed up her concerns nicely as she inched away from the Shadow's side.

" _Oi, what's that supposed to mean?! I'm only just after spilling my guts over here, what do you mean I'm acting weird?!"_ The Shadow asked insistently as he inched closer to Rise again.

Hopping off the pedestal entirely, Rise continued to back off as the Shadow continued to advance on her. "Like, telling me all this stuff in the first place! It's almost, like you're being… _thoughtful_ or something."

" _What? A Shadow can't be thoughtful once in a while?"_

"I've never heard of a Shadow being _anything_ good before Teddie, but he's different! Just tell me why you're being so… so… _nice to me!"_ Rise finally yelled, balling up her fists and clenching her eyes shut.

As she stopped stepping back, so too did Astaire's Shadow. He let out a chuckle and, when Rise opened her eyes, greeted her with a soft, thoughtful smile. _"Easy. I am a Shadow. The true self."_ He spread his arms wide as he looked to the sky. _"I am everything Knight Astaire is avoiding or ashamed of, all rolled into one. That said…"_ He lowered his head again, shaking it as he lay his hands to his hips. _"...Not everything he's ashamed of is necessarily shameful in the first place. Odd bugger, he is."_

Rise's brow twitched subtly and her eyes refused to sit still as she tried to perform the mental gymnastics necessary to puzzle out what the Shadow meant. 'Everything he's avoiding or ashamed of'? He wasn't ashamed of being nice to her, surely? What reason would he have? "Does… does the _real_ Astaire-kun not _like_ being nice to me?" She finally just asked.

Astaire's Shadow ran a hand down his face and exhaled again. _"For God's- No, that's not it! For pity's sake, it's not THAT hard to puzzle out!"_ And yet, as the Shadow watched Rise's facial expressions continue to dance and contort, he finally gave up. _"Oh, sod it. You'll figure it out on your own soon enough."_

Oh, _hell_ no. He was _not_ leaving this on a cliffhanger, not on his weird, Shadowy life. Just as Rise snapped to attention to indignantly demand further explanation, the Shadow took a single stride forward and deftly swiped Astaire's glasses from her hand. "H-Hey, wait! You can't just say something like that and then leave me hanging!"

" _Not only can I, but I fully intend to. Until next time, Ms. Kuji…"_ The Shadow paused, glasses mid-way to their eyes, as he lingered on Rise's heart-rending expression. Calling them puppy dog eyes would've been an affront to her. Even puppies would've melted when faced with such an expression. Just as the Shadow melted in the face of it as well. _"...Fine. Fine. One more thing."_ He sighed, kneeling down slightly to meet Rise at face-level. _"I would've beat the hell out of Narukami as quickly as I'd have done to anyone else-"_

" _-Because I like you way too much to let you walk into your doom blindly. Don't care whose fault it is."_

 _Ba-dump._ "Wh-what?!"

With a quick glint of a smile, the Shadow closed his eyes as he slipped the Ultramarine frames back over his eyes. As quickly as he'd gone- _"AAAAGH!" -_ the real Astaire was back.

Which would've been good, under most circumstances. By all means, Rise was happier to see him than she was to see his yellow-eyed, speaking-in-stupid-riddles doppelganger. But he didn't look quite as pleased to see her.

Astaire clutched at his elbows and huddled his arms in close to himself, his pupils like pinpricks as he readjusted to having control of his own body again. A cold sweat slicked his brow, and his knees buckled underneath him as his sense of balance waved to and fro. He mumbled something incoherent under his breath, a look of sheerest panic on his face.

Sensing that his current state was entirely her fault, and guilt slugging her in the ribs as a result, Rise closed the distance between them and outstretched her arm sheepishly. "A-Astaire-kun? Are you alright?"

Her hand recoiled as Astaire whipped around to face her, at which point Rise swore she felt the air change around him. He was suddenly taller. Broader. He cast a shadow over her that felt like it blotted out every bit of light around her. The only light left was the one in his eyes. His glaring, piercing, furious orange eyes. In that instant, Rise saw a part of Astaire previously only shown to those he took up arms against. And it was absolutely terrifying.

" _Never._ Do that to me again." He growled.

"I-I'm sorry!" Rise quivered as she craned her neck back to look him in the eyes. "B-But your Shadow was acting weird, I just wanted to know-!"

"What was going on inside my head. Without asking me first." Astaire finished for her. "And without knowing what would happen once you did."

Yes. Yes to all. Hearing it out loud, Rise realised she couldn't deny it. Judging from Astaire's reaction, it sounded just as bad as it was. A wet prickle touched Rise's eyes as her bottom lip began to quiver. Her chest heaved as she felt her breaths shudder up her throat.

As the tears welled up and began to cloud her vision, Rise watched as Astaire's face morphed before her eyes. Like wax to a flame, that horrific expression of his melted away to the one she was much more familiar with. Softer, and presently brimming with concern. "Oh, Gods forgive me! Ms. Kujikawa, I'm so sorry!" He apologised as he knelt down to face her. It was such an attitude shift that Rise almost mistook him for a different person. "...Please don't cry. I'm not all that fussed about it, really."

Rise shook her head and dried her eyes with the sleeves of her top. "You're- You're a really bad liar." She said shakily. "And even if you're not angry, you probably should be… I mean, you're right, after all."

A quick flicker of bother flitted across Astaire's face. Right on the money. After a pause, he spoke. "It'll pass. Never worry yourself about it. Just…" Astaire rose to his feet and outstretched a hand. "...Promise me you won't do it again."

He didn't seem as tall, broad or stifling to be close to now, Rise noted. Rather than anxiety, she felt a familiar comfort seep through her hand and up her arm as she placed it in Astaire's own. "Promise."

Rise smiled at the friendlier version of Astaire's face as she led him by the hand to the TV, hoping that she'd never have to see it leave again.


	21. Double Tap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A studio-wide frenzy, a trial of willpower and a rematch.

The dull fluorescent glow of Kaoru's computer monitor strained his eyes in the dark room. He wasn't supposed to be up this late. It was bad for his eyes. Could've been bad for his complexion too, and that'd have been utterly _tragic._ Whatever would his legions of darling fans think?

Probably not much, if all went according to plan. Because if it did, the tabloids were going to be focused on something far more scandalous than his less than exquisite face. Not that it was ever anything less to begin with, but oh well.

One email, two email, three email, four. Kaoru's fingers were like lightning as he typed out exactly what that weird, lanky guy with the teeth told him, attaching photos and audio files all along the way.

...Come to think of it, where _had_ that mustachioed weirdo obtained this information in the first place? As much as Kaoru prided himself on staying connected, none of his connections had dug up _anything_ like this. And there was a lot of digging done.

'" _...All we ask is that you do as is required of you."_

'We', huh? That might've explained it.

Either his excessively toothed benefactor had friends in high places, or he had friends in very, _very_ low ones.

Not that it made much of a difference, as far as Kaoru was concerned. It didn't matter where the information had come from. It didn't matter that the whole task felt sleazier than he could've previously imagined.

If it got him closer to Rise, he'd do anything.

' _Send message to (49) recipients?'_

_Click._

* * *

Yosuke swore the burns from the previous night hadn't fully healed. Either that or he had a fever. In both cases, sleeping hadn't come quite as easily to him as it had done to Teddie, who snored away contentedly in his makeshift bed fashioned inside Yosuke's closet.

Well, sleep or no sleep, it was morning anyway. Doubting that anything short of losing an arm entirely would get him a day off school, Yosuke ran a hand down his face and rolled lazily out of bed.

Woah, crap, he _might've_ had a fever. That idol poster on his wall just _would_ not stay clear and focused. Yosuke rubbed his eyes and tried switching between all six girls on the SGJ48 poster, hoping all their scantily-clad glory need not go to waste thanks to his shoddy eyesight.

"Don't worry Yosuke, I already checked…" Teddie mumbled from his bed as he peeked out of the sliding closet door, a line of drool hanging from his mouth. "...Yurie-chan is a B."

"How did you-? I'm not checking them out, dumbass, I can't see a damn thing." Yosuke snapped back as he took a seat at his desk and swung himself around, resting his elbows as he continued rubbing at his eyes. "If I've got soot behind my eyeballs or something, I'm gonna kill someone."

"If you can see them, that is!" Teddie added more cheerfully as he suddenly sprung from the closet fully-clothed and landed as gracefully as a ballerina. He plopped himself down at the small table in the centre of the room, swiping the pillow Yosuke sat on- the comfortable one- and setting about idly flicking through some of the magazines lying about, one of which was unopened from the day before. "It really is a shame about your eyes! There's an article about Rise-chan in here I think you'd _love_!"

Like a bolt of lightning, Yosuke skidded to a halt behind Teddie and swiped the magazine out of his hands, burying his face in the pages. "What the-? There's nothing about Rise in here!" He barked, not even caring to hide his disappointment.

Much to Teddie's joy, of course. He fell onto his back and laughed heartily at Yosuke's expression of chagrin. "Hah, got you! Honestly Yosuke, you're almost as bad as Stairry-kun! But hey, looks like your eyes aren't screwed up aft- _ppftfbfft!"_ He ended in a muffled mouthful as the magazine met his face.

"Yeah, thanks Doc." Yosuke grumbled as he went to swipe up his phone. Like they were _anything_ alike, he wasn't _that_ bad. He'd never be tha- Oh shit, was that a text from Chie?!

The vibration that had caught Yosuke's ear, sadly, brought nothing but disappointment. It wasn't Chie, it was a notification from some stupid news app. Honestly, a guy said he was into idols _once_ and suddenly he was bombarded with…

Hang on. That was a lot of notifications. From a lot of different publishers.

Weird. Instead of immediately dismissing all of them at once, Yosuke took the time to scroll through the almighty list of headlines and see what had apparently gotten all of Japan so riled up in one night.

" _MASS SCANDAL! Idols from popular SGJ48 group EXPOSED! CLICK HERE TO READ!"_

Gee, thanks for the specifics. Not clicking that crap.

" _CHAOS! Takura Productions in Panic Mode as top idols involved in ongoing leaked scandal!"_

...Oh shit. That was Rise's studio. Fearing the worst, Yosuke opened the link, his eyes darting madly as he went about absorbing the article at breakneck speeds. "Eh? What's up, Yosuke?" Teddie asked from behind him.

Shit. _Shit._ This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

Speed-dial working its magic, Yosuke had Rise's number on-screen without hesitation. It barely finished ringing the first time before it connected on the other end. "Rise! Rise, have you seen the news right now?! What the hell is going on?!"

* * *

" _I DUNNO, BUT ABOUT SEVENTEEN PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO TELL ME ALL AT ONCE!"_ Rise shouted over every ringtone she had going off at one time. Whose bright idea was it to give her that many work phones in the first place?! And who the hell had the number to _all_ of them all at the one time?! "The one I use for Inoue-san! _Inoue-san!"_ Rise shouted to Astaire on the opposite seat of the limo.

Panic was rife in his eyes as he brought out phone after phone from Rise's handbag, all of which looked exactly alike and were buzzing angrily at him, causing an uproar that seemed to shake the whole car. "Where on earth are they all coming from?! There's no end to them!" He asked in exasperation as he juggled what felt like ten trillion phones in one hand.

Whatever attempt Rise was making to chat with Yosuke, it was beyond the scope of Astaire's hearing range. Either that or he was going deaf. Both were equally as likely. His patience just about run thin, he scooped up Rise's bag of phones and tossed the whole thing into his Bottomless Box, which he promptly slammed shut in the hopes it would give them some peace and quiet.

Oh, fan-bloody-tastic, now _the box_ was vibrating instead. "I can't take much more of this, and it's barely morning as is…" Astaire said as he slumped in his seat, his voice rumbling as his box rumbled inside his coat.

At least it was quieter now. Quiet enough for Rise to actually get a word in to Yosuke. "No. No, I don't know what it's about, or who it's about. We're on our way to the studio now." She explained, curling one of her twintails around her finger. "...No, I don't think it's about me and Astaire-kun. Look, I'll ring you back when I know more, okay?"

Well, thank the Gods, that was a relief to hear. Rise and Astaire sighed in unison as the former clasped her phone down in her hand. The moment she did, Yukiko's number flashed up on the display on the front.

Both Rise and Astaire half-sighed and half-cried. This was going to be a long, long, _long_ drive to work.

* * *

As the limo pulled into the Takura Productions gate- sporting a veritable throng of people running about in a panic inside- the choir of ringtones finally seemed to die down inside the Bottomless Box. "I hate these ruddy things." Astaire grumbled as he handed Rise back her bag.

"Me too." Rise agreed as she forcibly shut down everything with a signal that she could lay hands on. "I guess there's not much point in calling Inoue-san if we're already here. Still, I wonder what's got everyone so wound up?" Rise thought out loud as she put her hand to the car door and pushed.

A wave of persistently annoying ringtones assaulted her and Astaire both the moment the door opened even slightly. It wasn't just Rise who was being pestered about whatever was happening, it was _everyone._ Stage hands, IT directors, the costume staff, the makeup artists, even Coach-san could be seen running about with his phone to his ear, looking about ready to have four simultaneous heart attacks.

Rise and Astaire both slumped down with synchronised groans. "I wanna go home…" Rise complained.

"I almost wish Lordran would take me back. At least it was quiet…" Astaire complained just as fervently. Beatings and stabbings he could take, but this was the purest form of agony he could imagine.

Matters weren't helped at all as a familiar-yet-impossibly-panicked face rocketed up to meet Rise from within the cacophonous cloud of electronic noise. "Rise-chan! Thank God you're here, things are _dire_ with a capital _everything!_ You couldn't have come at a better time!" Inoue blurted out, looking as though he'd gone three rounds in a cage versus a freight train.

"Inoue-san, what the heck is going on?! Why's everyone acting so crazy?!" Rise shouted over the surrounding din.

"No time to explain! Look, I know you had plans for today, but that concert prep of yours is going to have to be put on hold for a while!" Inoue began as he ushered Rise off by her shoulders, ignoring her increasingly frequent questions because there _simply wasn't time._ "We need you, and I mean _really_ need you over at Studio 6, pronto! Like, we need you there _yesterday!"_

Clearly, questions weren't going to yield answers in the midst of such a frenzy. Still, if she was needed over at Studio 6, perhaps someone there could explain _why_ she was needed so badly in the first place. Seeing as getting blood from a stone would've been easier than getting a straight answer from Inoue, Rise nodded affirmatively to he and Astaire both, making a beeline for Studio 6 further into the lot.

* * *

The first difference between Studios 4 and 6, Astaire noted, was that it was a lot more compact. Rather than some wide-open performance area requiring an entire colosseum's worth of space, Studio 6 appeared to consist mainly of long, _long_ hallways and a myriad array of rooms branching off on either side. Striding down the mercifully quiet red halls, each window Astaire peeked through was filled with masses upon masses of devices and electronics of every kind. He couldn't _even hope to imagine_ what any of them were for, but it must've been something other than rehearsing a concert the whole day through.

"Auuuugh. Where the heck are we supposed to be going, Inoue-san…?" Rise moaned as she slinked down the hallway at Astaire's side. "It feels like we've been walking forever… Astaire-kun, can you carry me?"

It felt as though the request should've embarrassed him more, but when Astaire thought about it, he'd actually done his fair share of carrying Rise about by now, be it in his arms, on his back or on his shoulders. "Certainly." Astaire stopped to take a knee, shrugging his shoulders to direct his passenger. "It might be wiser to leave my hands free, I think, just in case anything untowards sho- _AUGH!"_

The door Astaire had knelt next to swiftly swung open and thrashed him in the face, bowling him over backwards and onto the floor. Before Rise could move to see if he was alright, a number of smaller, more distraught issues came barrelling out of said door.

Three girls, tall, medium and short respectively, had come charging out with tears streaming from their eyes in droves. "R-R-Rise-senpai!" The shortest girl bawled, wrapping her arms around Rise's midsection and hiccupping between sobs. "W-What're we going to do?!"

"T-Tachi-chan? Oh my gosh, is everything alright?" Rise asked concernedly as she brought one of her hands to the back of the smaller girl's head, petting her lightly.

"Does everything _look_ alright to you?!" The tallest girl bit back, eyes puffy and face red, despite her best efforts to hide her tears. "We're part of the reason everyone's all up in arms right now! Can you even imagine how it feels?!"

"Sayaka-chan, please! It's not Rise-senpai's fault." The middle girl said gently, despite looking just as distraught as her two companions. Noticing the questioning look forming on Rise's face, she bowed her head as she sniffed intermittently. "W-We got caught. Someone put out pictures of us in public during downtime."

Rise tilted her head as she stroked Tachi-chan's own. "Is that all? Yoko-chan, that _really_ doesn't sound too-"

"Out for drinks." Yoko continued.

Oh.

"With our boyfriends…" Tachi added.

_Oh._

"Wearing the dresses we bought just for that occasion..." Sayaka finalised.

 _Oh, dear._ "That… sounds a little worse." Rise gulped.

"It's more than _a little worse!_ They've put our contracts on indefinite suspension! That's just one step away from being fired altogether!" Sayaka fumed as she punched the door, not stopping to wonder why it wasn't swinging all the way out. Whatever part of her was burning up with anger seemed to be running out of steam as she let out a sigh. "They're probably waiting for us to quit on our own so they don't have to fire us. What a load of crap." Sayaka stuffed her hands in her pockets as she began trudging off for the studio exit. "C'mon girls. Guess it's time to go figure something out."

Giving Rise a courtesy bow, Yoko quickly darted after her taller partner, leaving only the miniscule frame of Tachi behind, letting go of Rise's midsection and rubbing her eyes. "S-Sorry we let you down, Rise-senpai… See you later… or not…" She said, sounding defeated and down-beaten as she slowly pursued her older companions, her head hung low.

"Holy cow… They were some of the studio's biggest stars, too…" Rise murmured. Any wonder everyone was in such a tizzy, some of the studio's headliners had just got given the boot. "Who could have done such a thing?"

"It's- _oof… -_ nod my blace to zay." Astaire said as he tried to retrieve his nose from the back of his skull. After some adjustment he shook his head and was none the worse for wear, save for the massive bruise in the middle of his face. "...But gracious, all this just from a set of pictures? This work of yours is madness."

"Yeah… it doesn't take much to make you lose your fans in the idol game, unfortunately." Rise lamented. "Honestly, after those pictures of us out with Naoto-kun and Kanji-kun the other day, I'm surprised I'm not walking out with everyone else…"

Wait, _what?!_ "Pictures?! What pictures?!" If events a week prior had taught Astaire anything, it was that pictures as related to Rise weren't anything to joke about.

Rise opened her mouth to ask how he hadn't known but, again, the guy didn't exactly have a phone to check. "Yeah, someone snapped a few of us when we were out shopping together. Hmm…" Rise teased her chin with her fingers in thought. "I… I guess if Inoue-san didn't say anything about it, there's no harm done, right? Maybe everyone really believes that you're just my bodyguard after all!"

Letting out a breath he hadn't consciously held, Astaire nodded in agreement. "Gods, I can only hope so. If we'd caused something like this to happen over _your_ work instead of theirs…" He trailed off. In lieu of finishing, he shook his head dismissively. "No, you're probably correct. For now, we should keep looking for whatever it was Mr. Inoue required of you."

"Yeah, if we can ever find out what it was! Jeez, I hope it wasn't anything urgent. Rise huffed as she continued on her way back down the corridor, with Astaire quickly taking up stride beside her.

...This public lark was _dangerous._ If all it took was a few photographs and bad enough timing to ruin someone's work… Gods, it was a sobering thought, to put it lightly. One which mad Astaire feel sick the longer he lingered on it.

He needed to be more careful. If anything was going to end Rise's career, it certainly wasn't going to be him, not on his watch.

* * *

If there was a single stone they'd left unturned or a speck of dust they hadn't looked under, Rise would be damned if she knew where it was. Apparently everyone had gone outside to run about aimlessly, because there was absolutely _nobody_ else around. The whole situation was absolutely ridiculous. "See anyone yet?" Rise asked as she lay her head into Astaire's back, her arms long having stiffened around his upper torso as he carried her.

"Sadly not." Astaire replied for the fifth time that minute.

Rise peeked over his shoulder at the endless labyrinth of corridors before them. "This is starting to weird me out a little. It's like everyone's gone home already." Looking into the windows of the doors they passed revealed equally empty rooms on either side of them. "Makes me wonder what Inoue-san wanted us over here for in the first place…"

"I'm sure he had his reasons. He seemed altogether too panicked to-"

"Wait, shoosh!" Rise said as she clasped a hand over Astaire's mouth. "You hear that?"

Whatever _that_ was. It almost sounded like music. Almost. It also sounded like a hacksaw making passionate, violent love to a launchpad. With lyrics. Which meant there could've been only one culprit. "Ms. Mashita?"

Damn it, of all the people it had to be! Then again, after wandering aimlessly for so long, Rise was ready to accept any form of company, regardless of how into-or-possibly-not-into her bodyguard was towards them. "What are you waiting for?! Chase her down already!"

Off like a shot, Astaire quickly darted down yet more corridors in pursuit of the erratic-sounding music, Rise clinging onto him for dear life as she flapped behind him like a cape. Closer and closer it got, until finally the volume began to ramp up and Kanami's voice became clearer to hear. " _...Shunned by rays of Amon Ra, darkness exposes every soul's flaw! I forever remain raw, unpolished, drunk off knowledge of knowing I'm dumb…"_

With lyrics like that, it _had_ to be something of Kanami's. With one more corner to go, Rise poked her head out over Astaire's shoulder to get a first-person view. "Hey, Kanami-chan! Where the heck is everybody hidi-"

_What the absolute hell._

"Oh! There you are, Rise-senpai! I've been looking all over for you!" Kanami chirped as she plucked her earbuds out, spinning around on a heel as Rise found herself drooping off of Astaire's back.

_Hooooo this was bad._

Kanami was in full idol mode. Make-up applied, looking bright-faced and energetic. Her hair had been morphed from her usual mess of pigtails into an intricately-styled mass of curls centered around the back of her head. Far from her usual hoodie-bound persona, she looked positively radiant. Even moreso than she was normally.

That wasn't the biggest issue.

That would've been the swimsuit she was wearing.

Rise used the term _'wearing'_ liberally because she was three threads away from wearing nothing at all. And it looked _perfect_ on her, too! Crap, crap, crap! It was as though every feature she had which made Rise feel the slightest bit inferior was not only on display, but amplified tenfold. The unbelievable shape of her legs, thighs and hips. Her trim midriff. The only reason her mass amount of cleavage wasn't any more egregious was because _her fricking wireless speaker was sandwiched between her boobs._ Which was, like, three _TRILLION_ times worse.

Rise's jaw hung open. She couldn't think of what to say. The only thing that could've made matters worse would've been a massive sign pasted onto her forehead that read "SEX APPEAL" in bold letters. Her eyes glanced up at Astaire, whose own eyes appeared to be bulging out of his forehead.

Oh no. Oh, no no no no. This could _not_ be happening. He could _not_ be ogling her, especially not right in front of her. Then again, she was doing just as much ogling herself, albeit mainly out of shock and fear of _exactly this_ happening.

As though ignorant of her flagrant femininity on display, Kanami tilted her head to the side. "Something wrong, you two?"

"Yo-You're…!" Rise stammered.

"Y-Your…!" Astaire stammered likewise.

" _You're practically naked!"_

" _Your hair!"_

...Huh?

Rise and Kanami both blinked in confusion as their heads turned slowly to meet Astaire's. "W-What did you just say?"

To answer, Astaire strode forward, his eyes aglow as he swept around to Kanami's back, his eyes still bulging as he examined every angle of Kanami's forest of curls. "Gods above, I didn't even recognise you! How on earth is your hair staying like that?! Is this some kind of human magic I'm not aware of?" He asked in a tizzy, prodding at Kanami's curls every so often.

Well, uh… _that_ wasn't the sort of reaction Rise had been expecting. It wasn't the one Kanami had been expecting either, apparently, given she kept trying to turn around and face Astaire head-on in a confused daze and he kept circling around to examine her hair in lockstep.

But still, it was a little odd. Not that Astaire came off as any kind of outright pervert, but… really? Not even a flinch at Kanami's attire? What kind of red-blooded guy _didn't_ get worked up at cute girls in swimsuits? It sold enough calendars every year that it had to be a common enough reaction. So what was the deal?

Actually, forget that. She needed to address the curly-haired elephant in the room. "Kanami-chan… why are you wandering around the studio in a swimsuit?"

"Oh, that's right!" Kanami stopped her spinning and lightly tapped herself on the head as she remembered what she'd been doing beforehand. "So you know how everyone's all freaking out because Tachi-chan and Sayaka-chan and-"

"Yeah, yeah, we met them on the way down here, what about it?" Rise urged her on.

"Well…" Kanami lifted a finger to her chin and smiled mischievously. "...the whole reason everybody's freaking out was because they _kinda_ had a photoshoot to do today. But the magazine publisher would probably go _super_ crazy if their front cover had a bunch of disgraced idols on the front! They just _had_ to change it at the last second!"

... _Oh._ "So you're replacing them? All on your own?"

Kanami giggled, glanced back at Astaire, then looked back to Rise with her eyebrows waggling. "Heehee, not exactly! That's why I said I was looking for you, Senpai~!"

* * *

Where once there hadn't been a single soul throughout the entire studio, the set for Kanami and Rise's photoshoot was littered with noise and people from the moment they walked in, right up until Astaire found himself stoically waiting outside Rise's dressing area.

Gods, they were busy. Moving cameras to and fro, setting up massive devices that spat light onto the bright green backdrop. It didn't help that Kanami was flitting about and pestering whoever she could stop for even a second, giggling all the while at the reactions of the male technicians she forced her presence upon.

Why they were reacting the way they were- stammering and spluttering all at once- Astaire hadn't a clue. Kanami's hair was intriguing but it wasn't _that_ unbelievable, for Gwyn's sake. Evidently the minds of other men in this world were-

"Jeez, you can tell this swimsuit wasn't meant for me, it's not even _close_ to being my colour!" Rise complained as she cracked open the door to the dressing room.

Wait, swimsuit? As in, that thing Kanami had on?

Oh, _Gods._

"Oh, whatever. Ta-dah!" Rise swung the door open, struck a pose and shot Astaire a wink, brandishing the two-piece swimsuit and its blue-and-white floral pattern like a deadly weapon. "How do I look?"

" _Good, I'm sure."_ Astaire's tinny voice said from under his helmet.

...Wait, helmet?

Back as straight as a ruler, his arms crossed and, indeed, an iron helmet placed backwards on his head, Astaire nodded his eye-holeless head in approval.

"Wuh-? Why are you wearing that? And why are you wearing it _backwards?_ You can't tell me what I look like if you can't see me!" Rise pouted, hands on her hips. She didn't come out with a bang and a pose to have him _not_ watch her do it. Feeling especially indignant, Rise walked up to Astaire and reached for the helmet. "Come on, quit screwing around!"

Despite his best protests, _pop._ Off went the helmet.

Only there was another helmet underneath.

"You're kidding me." Rise said blankly, discarding the first helmet and snatching the next one just as quickly. Revealing another one underneath. "What the-" _Clang._ "-heck-" _Clang._ "-is your-" _Clang._ "-problem?!" Rise finished with a final clang, amassing a small mountain of metal helmets behind her. "So you can look at Kanami-chan in a swimsuit, but not me?! What's up with that?!"

"It's… it's more complicated than that, I assure you." Astaire insisted from under the Catarina Helmet on his shoulders, sounding too stiff and his words too hasty for him to have been anything but glowing red underneath.

Whatever parts of him were bristling at the whole situation, they bristled tenfold as they felt both of Rise's hands gently rest on his chest. "C'mon… I _want_ you to see me." She said quietly.

Slowly but surely, Astaire lifted the hefty pile of metal away from his eyes, looking down to meet Rise's soft, gentle smile. "Hey, there you are. You ready to tell me how I look now?"

There were a thousand words he could've used to tell her how she looked. It was just that none of them would've been at all appropriate for a knight to even think, much less say. There were too many places to look. Too many subtle details to absorb. Too _much_ of her on display for his response to have been anything beyond stunned, red-faced silence.

So the one guy who seemed immune to Kanami's charms wasn't immune to _hers,_ Rise concluded. Not that she was complaining. Not by a long shot. "Heehee. Alright, I think that's a good enough answer." She giggled as she backed off. "How about we get this show on the road, then?"

Feeling particularly proud of herself, Rise happily skipped off to meet Kanami in front of the cameras, leaving a beet-red, barely functioning Astaire to clumsily teeter after her.

* * *

This was Hell. _Actually Hell._

"Alright, big smiles! You've got a hell of an act to follow, even for you girls! I want the both of you to give this thing two hundred and ten percent, and not a single digit less!" The photographer shouted out between snaps and flashes of light. "Closer together, closer together, it's a magazine cover, not a billboard!"

She'd been impossible to answer when she was simply looking up at him, never mind _posing_ for anything. As Rise and Kanami contorted and bent themselves into any number of provocative, alluring shapes, Astaire found a game of tug of war taking place in his head. A game played between his sense of duty and the sheer discomfort he felt from watching.

His uneasy fidgeting and flustered looks were lost on neither girl. _Especially_ not Kanami, who quickly leaned in towards Rise's ear between shots. _"Whoever makes him lose his cool first wins."_ She whispered cheekily.

Rise looked at her with shocked surprise. "Focus, Rise-chan, we're still working here!" The photographer called out before she caught herself on.

Whatever silly little game she was proposing, _she was on._ Whatever she thought she had to gain from it, she was _dead wrong._

From there, Astaire's mental state only deteriorated quicker. Everything she did seemed more provocative the longer he attempted to keep an eye on her. She twisted and turned, bent and bowed, every maneuver more alluring than the last.

This was bad. This was awakening something inside him that he'd rather have kept locked away deep in the pits of his soul. He couldn't put a word to it, if only because his heart was trying to smash his windpipe into an unrecognisable pulp.

"Beautiful, beautiful, the both of you! Now give us something that'll _really_ rev their engines! Try blowing a kiss at the camera, would you?" The photographer enthused.

It seemed to Rise like she was winning this little contest of hers and Kanami's. She seemed to realise as much as well, as her eyebrow twitching seemed to suggest. But Rise wasn't done yet. This would sink it.

Forget blowing a kiss to the camera. Rise bent over, locked eyes with Astaire and planted her lips on her fingers. As she lowered them, she breathily whispered under her breath. " _Astaire-kun~"_

**GODS NO. TO HELL WITH THIS. KNIGHT ASTAIRE OUT.**

Following a brief second where he looked like he'd been hit by ten thousand simultaneous bolts of lightning, every nerve in Astaire's body screamed at him that enough was enough. He bolted for the door and threw himself outside, thrashing it shut behind him.

Rise was stunned. Holy crap, she didn't think it'd be _that_ bad. That was a whole other level of embarrassed right there. "Looks like you won, Rise-senpai!" Kanami chirped beside her, suddenly much less troubled looking. "I knew you had it in you to quake his heart a little!"

A little? She called that _a little?_ It had been a violent enough reaction that Rise wanted to take off after him. If only there wasn't a wall of photography equipment and one extremely passionate photographer stopping her.

...This shoot couldn't go on for too much longer. She'd just have to hunt him down afterwards.

* * *

These 'photoshoot' things were BLOODY AWFUL. There would sooner come a day when Astaire would try singing into the effective end of a crossbow than put himself through that again.

Gods, he felt as though a thousand showers would never make him clean. That he'd looked at Rise in any such way sickened him to his very core. Outside the set, he tapped his forehead off the wall and tried to calm himself down. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

"Ah, Astaire-kun. How nice to see you again."

_By the Gods, curse this sodding day and every other day like it._

Calm was but a fanciful dream as Astaire's temper immediately got set to boil. "Airashi." He said through clenched teeth. "I'd far better appreciate it if you wouldn't-"

"I forgive you for the other day, by the way! It really was rather mean of me, I hope I didn't take it too far." Kaoru interrupted, tapping the back of his hand where Astaire had cut. It had healed over perfectly, and he was back to his immaculately-styled, softly smiling demeanor.

Gods, what an utter cur. "Never worry yourself. I'd already forgotten about it." Astaire said, quite literally lying through his teeth. Little chestnut-looking tosspot, hurry up and go bother someone else.

"I assume you've heard about the girls this morning if you're here during what _would've_ been their photoshoot, hm?" Kaoru shook his head and shrugged, tutting to himself. "What a crying shame. I was so looking forward to collaborating with them later this year. Now my schedule is all out of sorts!" He laughed wryly.

Astaire's frustration was put on hold as something stood out in his mind.

Airashi was supposed to be working with the girls who had been ousted earlier on.

Rise and Kanami were filling in for said girls on short notice.

"But I suppose I should consider myself lucky." Kaoru peered in the window of the door Astaire had flown out of, watching as Rise and Kanami continued their posing and posturing. "At least I'll have Rise-chan and Kanami-chan to help sort things out with me." He said before he licked his lips lavisciously.

That was it. Sod trying to be civil.

"Get away from that window." Astaire said slowly as he rose to his full height.

Kaoru averted his gaze, if only to sneer at Astaire's glare. "Why? Do tell."

"It's my job to protect Ms. Kujikawa from danger, no matter where it might come from." He took a stride forward, squaring up to Kaoru as he looked down his nose at him. "That includes you."

He did leave the window, but it was only for Kaoru to teeter back and laugh in his face. "Hah! Is that so?" With a blink, his eyes sharpened and his face fell grave. "Trust me, I'd need to be doing one hell of a job to be much more dangerous than you. Then again…" He turned and shrugged his shoulders, hiding his hands from view. _Why_ he did so became evident when he whipped back around and suddenly had a rapier pointed at Astaire's throat. "...if it's dangerous men Rise-chan likes, I'll give it a damn good try."

Repulsive threats aside, Astaire's focus immediately shifted to the rapier. It wasn't one of his pathetic training ones. It was far more ornate, with a sharp, blackened blade. What's more, the large box he'd been keeping his previous set in was completely absent. He hadn't brought it with him, and it hadn't been there beforehand. It was almost as though he'd pulled the sword from nowhere.

Irrelevant. He'd drawn it on him and it was sharp. That was all Astaire needed to know.

A quick flash of silver parted the air and clashed against Kaoru's sword, lashing it to the side as Astaire put some distance between them, holding Ricard's Rapier at the ready. He could change his sword all he liked, it wouldn't help. He couldn't keep up with him a few days ago, he wouldn't keep up with him now.

With clashing flashes of black and silver, their swords met and filled the corridor with sound and fury.

He was using his right hand again. He was going to try the same stupid trick on him two fights in a row. The thought alone infuriated Astaire, channeling down into the grip of his sword as he swatted away Kaoru's advances. Such an insult to his memory deserved some kind of punishment.

Kaoru tried and failed to poke a hole in his defence, but it was as ironclad as it had been before. Even when he mounted his offence, forcing Astaire to backstep rapidly down the corridor while maintaining his stance, he never skipped a beat. Then he felt something graze the side of his head. Not steel, but air. He'd flicked away one of his attacks, launched his own, and flicked away his next one in the space of half a second flat.

To Astaire, it had been a warning. _Continue fighting like that and I'll riddle you before you even realise it._

To Kaoru, it was confirmation that he was winning. _That he was getting confident enough to make threats at all._

Time to change that.

All at once Kaoru's form shifted. His hand was quicker, his steps lighter and more deft. He struck at Astaire with twice the frequency he had before, from twice as many angles and with twice as much ferocity. His eyes gleamed with sadistic glee as he began forcing Astaire back even more quickly than he had done before.

Gods above, he had actually gotten better. _Much_ better. "You've been practicing, have you?!" Astaire said as he riposted and sent Kaoru onto his heels. He could keep up with Ricard's Rapier, but only just. But it was closer to being equal with him than he liked.

Kaoru whipped around and sliced horizontally, allowing Astaire the briefest of moments to backstep to safety. "I'm always practicing. Idols are hard workers, you know!" He grunted as he threw his whole body into a lunge. Dodged again. But it was close enough to register as a hole in Astaire's defence. That was all he needed. "You could stand to learn a thing or two from such a hard work ethic!"

Their swords locked as Astaire squared up and closed in on Kaoru's face, so closely that their foreheads almost touched. "I've fought harder and for longer than you could ever imagine. What could some uppity little pervert like you teach _me?"_ Astaire scoffed as he forced Kaoru to stumble back.

"Oh, I don't know." Kaoru said calmly mid-stumble. "Something like _this,_ perhaps."

Astaire blocked the strike he threw as he turned around and- _"Argh!"_ -felt the pain rush to his leg instead of his torso. But how? Not only had he attacked from on high, but _he'd_ blocked it. Pain was a doubly-assured impossibility.

All became clear as Astaire's line of sight lowered. Stabbed into his thigh, reddening his trouser leg as blood seeped from the wound, was a _second_ black rapier in Kaoru's other hand.

"Where the hell did you pull that from?!" Astaire asked in surprise. In lieu of a response, Kaoru drew his blade from his leg and launched a jab, which he sidestepped with nary an inch to spare.

Astaire knew he wasn't crazy. No box, no harlots carrying them, nowhere to hide them and nowhere he could've picked them up from on the way. So _how?_ How had he drawn them?

"The same place you've been drawing _your_ weapons from, I presume." Kaoru sneered as he stepped forward, both rapiers blurring around him as he swiped and sliced. Good Gods above, he was fast. "Don't you know a magician never reveals his secrets?!"

This was overwhelming. This was impossible. There was so much wrong with this fight that it was criminal. Astaire _couldn't_ have been waning. He _couldn't_ have pulled that sword from nowhere. He _couldn't_ be beating him.

And yet he was, he did, and he could.

"That shirt of yours looks a little plain, don't you think?" Kaoru said with a grin as Astaire tried and failed to fend off everything he was throwing at him. For once he'd left his coat unbuttoned, giving way to one of the plain black dress shirts he'd obtained in Okina. "Let me just touch that up for you."

It happened so quickly that Astaire barely registered it. One sword flicked away his own, and another flourished towards his chest. Three slices delivered in the blink of an eye. The suspicious lack of three fresh lines of pain on his torso coaxed Astaire's gaze from Kaoru proper.

The cuts were flawlessly clean. But more importantly, they'd been left in the shape of a 'K". "There. Now doesn't that look better?" Kaoru scoffed as he dramatically whipped a strand of hair to the side.

Astaire's knuckles went white at his side. "Ms. Kujikawa bought me this shirt." He growled.

"Did she? Goodness, I hope she kept the receipt." Kaoru smiled snidely, soaking up Astaire's anger like a sponge. "I hope you kept the one for that coat as w-"

As Kaoru lunged with both rapiers focused on one point, primed for Astaire's chest, he felt his aim be violently diverted. The sound of metal sliding across metal filled his ears as both swords were caught in the wide, curved handguard of a small dagger. If _he'd_ appeared to have pulled his weapons from nowhere, Astaire was twice as guilty. Kaoru hadn't seen a thing.

"I like to try and fight fairly, when I can." Astaire said, glaring through both rapiers held aloft by his Parrying Dagger. "I try to match weapons with whoever I duel. That way it seems like a true test of skill. The only exception…" With a flick of his wrist and a quick wave of his arm, Kaoru's rapiers were dashed off to his side. "...is when the other party does something to incite my ire."

He was completely open. Although every bone in Kaoru's body screamed at him to strike back, to raise his swords aloft and cut him to ribbons, both of them simply refused to move. It was like he'd been paralysed, if only for a moment.

"I'll be taking that, thank you." Astaire said as he slipped Kaoru's fingers out from his left rapier and replaced them with his own in one motion. Then he reeled back, raised a leg and threw all of his weight into one kick, which impacted Kaoru's stomach and sent him clean onto his back.

At last, a chance to breathe! _And_ an offhand weapon to boot! Where exactly he'd gotten it, Astaire hadn't a clue, but he gripped it tightly all the same, raising it to ready his counterattack and...

Wait, hold on a minute.

That didn't feel like Kaoru's soul.

Adjusting his fingers around the grip of the sword, there was no doubt. The feeling present in Kaoru's training sword the other day had barely registered. Where Yosuke's had felt like holding a living tornado in his fingers, Kaoru's had felt like squeezing a clump of moss in his palm. Tangible, usable, but not very impressive.

But this didn't feel like Kaoru's soul.

It was stronger by a mile. But it lacked restraint. It felt rabid and untamed, like a mighty dog trained to rip out another's throat. It almost felt like the sword wanted to jump out of his hand and skewer him on its own. Something was terribly wrong with the soul inhabiting the rapier. Something which, in Astaire's hands, felt worryingly _dark._

"Give me that!" Kaoru fumed as he ripped the sword from Astaire's hand. It seemed that kicking him had been like kicking a hive full of bees, because he looked absolutely furious. "How _dare_ you space out in front of me! And after _stealing my weapon_ too!" He screamed, echoing down the halls. "Just you wait. I'm going to cut you into tiny pieces, you ignorant bastard."

"Like hell you are!" Came a feminine voice from behind Kaoru. He turned to meet it and was greeted by a slap on the face. "Leave!" And another."Him!" _And another._ "Alone!" _And another one for good measure._ "Put those stupid things down before you hurt somebody!"

"Rise-chan…" Kaoru mumbled (to a thankfully more modestly-dressed Rise) as he dropped his swords and began massaging the pain from his face. "You'll ruin my makeup." His voice rumbled. Clearly, his fury was only barely being contained. Astaire was ready to step forward and pull him away from Rise before he turned and pointed a finger at him. "This isn't over, Just Astaire."

Astaire and Rise's spines chilled in unison. "W-What did you just call me?" Astaire gawked, his jaw loose.

The palpable tension in the air was quickly blustered away as three tall, imposing silhouettes came rocketing down the hallway behind Rise, arms pumping as they entered full sprint. "I think you'll find this _is_ over!" One voice bellowed.

"You!" The first voice latched on around Kaoru's neck.

"Little!" The second whipped around and snatched up his ankles, suspending him between himself and the first.

" _RUNT!"_ All three voices bellowed as they swung and tossed Kaoru to the third voice, who caught him and hauled him over his shoulder.

Both Rise and Astaire stood in a state of momentary shell-shock. What in the seven hells had either of them just bore witness to?

The trio then stood and turned on their heels in complete synchronisation. "Ah, good morning, Rise-chan! Good morning, Rise-chan's bodyguard-friend!" They all began in complete sync as well.

Boisterous enthusiasm aside, the similarities between the three young men were easy to see. They were similarly built: broad and with toned muscle rippling out of their shirts. They were similarly heighted too. The boy on the left glanced up at Astaire. Up an inch was the middle boy, who looked him in the eye with a wide grin. Up an inch was the boy on the right, who overtook Astaire entirely and looked down with a similarly blinding smile as Kaoru struggled and kicked about over his shoulder.

It didn't escape Rise's notice that the taller they were, the lighter and longer their hair was. Peruvian brown, sandy brown and platinum blonde.

That said, one thing about all of them remained remarkably consistent. _"WE'RE TERRIBLY SORRY FOR THE CONDUCT OF OUR KOUHAI TOWARDS YOU, RISE-CHAN'S-BODYGUARD-FRIEND-SAN!"_ All three boys shouted and bowed lowly in unison, knocking Kaoru off the taller fellow's shoulder and into a grumbling heap on the floor.

Feeling as though he'd been shocked by another ten shells on top of the first one, Astaire carefully held out his hands. "I-It's alright, re-"

" _IT IS NOT ALRIGHT!"_ All three boys raised their heads and bellowed at once.

"O-Okay, I guess it's _not_ alright." Astaire chirped as he shied away from the sheer energy all three fellows exuded. Seeing as talking to them was equivalent to throwing a ball at a wall and having it bounce back and smack him in the face, Astaire leaned in towards Rise's ear and asked, "Who the devil are they?"

Rise narrowed her eyes and stroked her chin as she skipped between the chiselled figures on their faces. Finally she snapped a finger. "Oh yeah, I remember you guys! You're the other three Musketeers!"

"WE ARE!" All three fellows shouted and raised their hands to the sky at once.

Giggling at their antics now that she remembered them again, Rise stepped forward. "Astaire-kun, this is Chiaki-kun, Taizou-kun and Yabe-kun." She said, going from tallest to shortest. "They're Kaoru's co-stars on-"

" _His_ co-stars?" Chiaki's blonde locks quaked in shock, right before he and his comrades began belly-laughing heartily, rattling every window in every door down the hall. As Kaoru began dusting himself off after being tossed to the floor, Chiaki suddenly had him in a headlock from behind. "Bahaha! You must be joking! Him?!"

True enough, now that he stood up it was easy to see that Kaoru, by comparison, was the shortest and thinnest out of the four of them. "Ka-kun's a little shrimp compared to the three of us! He's a D'artagnan through and through!" Taizou said heartily as he gave Kaoru a noogie, thoroughly messing up his hair.

Seemingly having been humiliated enough for one day, Kaoru threw up his arms as he broke out of the headlock and quickly stormed off down the hall, his face a picture of godlike restraint. "That's also why he's kind of a little shit at times. Napoleon complex, we think." Yabe whispered to Astaire and Rise both.

"But hey! Runt or no runt, he's pretty good with a sword!" Chiaki boomed as he wrapped a thick arm around Astaire's neck and pulled him closer with a quiet _'oh dear.'_ "You must be pretty handy yourself if you managed to fend him off! I bet he's _furious!"_ He added with another boisterous laugh which rang in Astaire's ear.

Sensing that peace and quiet were quickly becoming distant dreams, and wanting to investigate Kaoru's swords more closely, Astaire ducked out from under Chiaki's arm and backed off to where he couldn't snatch him off again. "I'm sure he is. Now, if you gents would excuse me I'd like to…" Astaire trailed off after squatting towards the floor.

Kaoru's swords had vanished. Judging from how he looked when stomping away, it hadn't looked like he'd taken them with him, either. As Astaire had told himself many times, he simply hadn't the space to hide them, so he _would've_ noticed. So why hadn't he?

"Wait a minute. Aren't we forgetting something, brothers?" Yabe pointed out, prompting he and his two comrades to all clutch their chiseled chins in introspection, furrowing their brows in time.

At once, their eyes shot open and their jaws dropped. _"CRAP, WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE ON SET! THAT'S WHY WE WENT LOOKING FOR KA-KUN IN THE FIRST PLACE! OH, WHAT FOOLS WE ARE!"_ They chorused.

"Wow, that one was actually kind of impressive." Rise remarked, eyebrows high. If she didn't know better she'd have thought they were hooked up to the same brain stem.

"Sorry, we've got a show to put on! TTFN!" Yabe said, shaking Astaire's hand vigorously as he made to sprint off.

"It was nice meeting you in person, Rise-chan's-bodyguard-friend-san!" Taizou said, shaking his hand twice as hard as he sprinted after Yabe.

"We're always around here somewhere, you should come and train with us some time!" Chiaki said, nearly ripping Astaire's arm entirely out of its socket before rocketing after his cohorts.

In the cloud of dust they kicked up behind them, only silence was left in their wake.

"...Are you the only 'idol' around here who isn't an absolute nutter?" Astaire asked Rise as they both watched the eccentric trio blaze a trail in the opposite direction.

* * *

"Oh for- What a waste of a good shirt! Like I didn't have enough reason to hate that little creep already." Rise fumed as she examined Astaire's shirt. She spun around in her chair and made for her dressing room's closet before flinging the doors open. "Jeez. I guess I'll get Kanji to take a look at it later. Looks like you're stuck like that for now." She said, slipping the tattered garment onto a hanger.

"It's quite alright." Astaire shrugged, his casualwear feeling incredibly unfamiliar to the touch. Not that he minded. A few shirts were a hell of a lot more comfortable than armour oft proved to be. "I can think of worse things to be-" His voice caught in his throat as he caught sight over Rise's shoulder of a myriad of swimsuits, all hung up according to colour. "-stuck in."

Rise didn't miss his pause- because who the hell _would-_ and felt a mischievous smile curl her lips. "Hey, about earlier. Y'know, when you ran out like a headless chicken?" She could practically hear his entire body bristling behind her. By now it was a sound she was well familiar with. "Something wrong?"

"Not at all." Astaire replied too quickly.

Oh, buggering hell, he really needed to stop doing that.

Rise turned to face him, all sly smiles and half-closed eyes. She clasped her hands behind her back and sauntered over to him slowly. "Hmm? You sure? It looked like something really got to you back then." Then she leaned down to his face, so closely that Astaire almost crawled backwards off his chair entirely. "Was it Kanami-chan?"

"What? Why would it have been her?" Astaire's flustering immediately dried up, replaced with veritable confusion. "What was _she_ doing?"

Now it was Rise's turn to be just as confused as he was. "What was she-? You were there, you dummy! How the heck can you not know what she was doing?!"

"Because I wasn't watching… her…" Astaire petered out just as he realised what he was saying. He then quickly wished that he could jump inside his bottomless box and be buried so deep into the earth that he'd never be found again.

Suddenly feeling a kinship with every red traffic light she'd ever seen, Rise spun on a heel to hide her furious blushing. "Oh. Right. Yeah, I guess that'd make it difficult, huh?" She said, secretly grinning from ear to ear.

"...Mind you, mouthing my name didn't help matters either." Astaire mumbled as he scratched the back of his head.

Rise snorted as she tried to stifle a laugh and failed. "Pffft! Sorry, that was my bad. I got a little too into the shoot, that's all." She giggled. Turning back to Astaire's cross-armed, troubled-looking expression, she leaned in again and tapped the bottom of his chin. "Hey, lighten up. I know I wouldn't mind seeing _you_ in a swimsuit." She said with a teasing wink.

The longer they stayed on this subject, the more Astaire wanted to bolt out the door all over again. Face like a sweating tomato, he cleared his throat and tried to rectify the situation. "I-I-In any case! I don't suppose you've heard from Mr. Narukami about another venture into the TV, have you?"

Diversion successful! Rise's expression neutralised- save for the slightest hint of pink that hadn't yet faded- as she checked her phone. "Huh. He _did_ send a message, but it's not about heading into the TV. Just about 'something' he's got planned for tomorrow. He wants us to meet him by the Samegawa river."

The Samegawa? Huh. It wasn't every day Senpai called them down to _there_ instead of somewhere like Junes. What exactly was he planning?

* * *

Son of a _bitch!_ He'd beaten him _again!_ One sword or two, blunt or bladed, it hadn't made even one bit of difference! He'd still beaten him!

Kaoru kicked his dressing room door as hard as he could, nearly knocking it off its hinges as he stormed inside and sat down at his vanity, clutching his head as he rest his elbows and tried to resist the urge to break _everything_ around him.

"Hmph. Perhaps this will teach you to not act like a child in the future." A droll voice said from behind.

How his big-toothed benefactor had got in, or when, or where he'd been beforehand, Kaoru didn't care. All that mattered was that he was there. He rose from his seat and swung a fist at the suited man. "You told me I'd be able to beat him!" He roared. "Once and for all, those were your _exact_ words!"

The man leaned back, effortlessly avoiding Kaoru's swing. When he went to launch another one, he caught his fist mid-flight before slamming his forehead into Kaoru's, staggering him backwards. "Stupid boy! I did not tell you that you would best him right away, nor did I imply that it would be easy done!" He shouted, sounding both annoyed and indignant. "Whatever paltry power you possess now, you would inevitably be crushed before the deed was done."

Kaoru rubbed the sore spot on his head, wanting to take another go at the mustachioed prick, but somehow that didn't seem like a good idea. "Bullshit. You give me power and then tell me it's not enough?! Why the hell am I even talking to you if that's the case?!"

"One with the experience that boy possesses cannot be trounced in the space of a day, you vexatious cretin. Such things will inevitably take time." The man hissed.

"And what about Rise-chan, huh? Call me crazy but I don't think her slapping the shit out of me is any indication of us getting closer." Kaoru snapped back.

The suited man made an odd, exasperated noise, halfway between a sigh and a gurgle, as he massaged his sizable nose. "Time, you stupid boy, time! Patience is a vital virtue in the realms of subterfuge, and you would be wise to remember it thus!" He spat, his eyes almost popping from their sockets in frustration.

"How the hell am I supposed to remain patient when I can't even beat some lumbering shithead in a swordfight?!" Kaoru spat back,veins popping from his forehead.

The suited man paused, then smiled a wide, unsettling smile before a chuckle crept up his throat. "Well, should it not be obvious what you should do instead?"

Kaoru raised an eyebrow at his sudden shift in demeanor. "Huh? What're you talking about?"

He chuckled. "There are plenty of ways to beat humans down. Ways that needn't involve lifting a sword at all."

 

* * *

 

 

If you don't know what a Launchpad is, it's one of those little button-panel things that electronic music artists use.

For today's musical hellscape, it's the song Kanami was singing away cheerily to. Trying to describe the opening of it was fun.


	22. Training Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A renewed sense of conviction, a well-intentioned bout between friends, and a long-overdue admission.

There is no greater fear than fear of the unknown.

And for a year, there was nothing that Yu Narukami hadn't known.

Who would be kidnapped. When. Why. Where they would be, and how long it would take to retrieve them. When seasons would come and when they'd leave in turn. Who he'd meet and how they'd act. Everything. And he'd had to play dumb for most of it, to be sure things remained the way they were supposed to be.

But if getting berated by a _Shadow_ of all things didn't mean it hadn't been that simple, nothing would.

'Comfortably numb' is how he would have described it. The thought that anything might have posed a threat to his or his friends lives never even occurred to him. They'd done it all before, after all. No matter the risks he'd taken, they'd always come out on top.

That manner of callous thinking could've gotten him and everyone else killed. And it'd never even crossed his mind.

Refusing to move under heavy giant-boulder-sniper fire was one thing, given that even an idiot wouldn't presume a normal person could survive something like that. It was another matter entirely to set an entire forest alight and just assume everyone would get through it unscathed.

Perhaps, after everything they'd been through, it would wind up being him, not the TV World, that posed the biggest threat.

The thought left Yu unable to deny it any longer. He was scared. Scared stiff and then some. Every day he and everyone else spent climbing up that space-defying tower was a new attempt on their lives. One more thing he had absolutely no knowledge of. For the first time in a year, fear's ice-cold fingers began creeping through his ribs and stabbing at his heart. He might actually lose someone. He might lose everyone at once. And this time, there'd be no do-overs. No worldly reset button to let him go back and do things over.

If he flew too close to the sun, he was going to fall. And he was going to bring everyone else with him.

Having watched the sun slowly peek over the horizon through his window as he mulled over the situation, Yu clenched his fists tightly as he sprung himself up from his bed. Inside, he felt his fear get beaten into submission by a burgeoning sense of determination.

He couldn't lose anyone. He _wouldn't_ lose everyone. If _he_ was the problem, or was risking turning into one, all he needed to do was change his approach. That was all.

He left his phone by the wayside as he got dressed for school. No TV World today. Everyone sorely needed their rest.

As for the day after? He might just have had an idea in mind.

* * *

_The following day…_

"Alright Partner, spill it." Yosuke threw out his arms and glanced around at all the _nothing_ on the banks of the Samegawa River. "What're we doing here?"

"Furthermore, why is Kanji-kun alone not accompanying us?" Naoto asked, tipping her cap to keep the high-hanging sun from her eyes. From the shrug Yu gave her, it seemed reasonable to assume that he hadn't planned for his absence. Whether that made her feel better or worse, she couldn't say.

"And what's with the bag? Or the umbrella?" Chie asked as well, wondering why nobody had brought either matter up sooner. In her mind, a large black sports bag and the massive, beach-tier umbrella over Yu's shoulder were a bit hard to ignore.

"It's not an umbrella, idiot, it's a parasol." Yosuke said bluntly.

"Whatever! What's with the _parasol_ then?!" Chie barked after shooting Yosuke a dirty look.

Seeing as the shadows that were cast across the green, flowing grass of the riverside included all but Kanji's, Yukiko took it to mean only one thing. "This is about the other day, isn't it? About what happened inside the TV."

"Eh, kinda." Yu asked, sounding a lot less serious than everyone had been anticipating. "It's more i _n response_ to it rather than _about_ it altogether, if that makes sense."

"Not even a lick." Astaire said from Rise's side. "Unless your response involves beating someone with that… para- _thing_ you're carrying."

Yu met Astaire's eyes, smiled slightly, then began walking towards him. "You're closer than you might think, actually." He then tossed the bag to Astaire's feet- which hit the ground with a mix of wooden, plastic and metal jingling sounds- then thrusted the parasol into his hands. "Today's combat training day, and Astaire-san's going to be our dummy."

Hm. Somehow, being called a 'dummy' by someone other than Ms. Kujikawa didn't feel as endearing as it usually did.

Continuing on before the inevitable cloud of confused and questioning voices rose up, Yu clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing in front of his line of friends like an army drill sergeant. "Yes, everyone heard me right. Since we're going through some kind of… _something_ resembling Astaire-san's world, we need to start taking precautions on how people from that world fight. To that end…" He outstretched a hand to Astaire as he swung the parasol over his shoulder, much as Yu had done. "...I've prepared a few 'weapons' which should prove a little less harmful than what we're used to."

Looking at the way he was holding it, Rise's eyebrows suddenly shot up. "Oh! So that parasol is kinda like Astaire-kun's Zweihander!" She chirped before kneeling down to peek through the rest of the bag. There was a set of maracas, a pair of sandals, a rubber-band gun, a rolled-up half tatami mat, a tambourine and a soft, fluffy looking paw which no doubt filled in for Teddie's weapon. "Jeez, you've been busy, Senpai."

"Sure have. Hopefully, with all of those in hand, Astaire-san can imitate not just the moves of whoever's weapons he's got in his box, but us, too. You never know when we might need it." Yu explained, reaching around to his back and revealing a Kendo Shinai as his weapon of choice. "That is, if you're feeling up to it, Astaire-san. Hopefully this way will teach us more than just talking will."

Easier said than done, actually. It was bad enough fighting with a blunt weapon with no soul in it, but these weren't weapons at all! They were closer to jokes than weapons! Not only did they not contain any souls, but he doubted they could even hold one in the first place. "I'm not sure I'll be able to do anything too fanciful with these. But I'll give it a try, at least." Astaire nodded. Souls be damned, it was worth trying at least once. He'd simply have to improvise.

Yu took his shinai in both hands and strode out into the open, followed closely by Astaire before the two split off and took their places opposite one another.

"Alright, Astaire-san. Don't hold back!" Yu cried as he suddenly kicked off his starting point, his wooden sword stand-in primed for the kill.

Looking his parasol up and down again, Astaire couldn't help but feel like the whole situation felt rather silly. "If you insist, Mr. Narukami." He said as he went and fished inside his coat for something. As he glanced to the sky mid-search, one might've got the impression that he wasn't taking the situation all that seriously.

Time to beat that out of him. "I'm not gonna go easy on you if you start spacing out!" Yu roared as he approached striking distance and let fly his blunt, non-threatening weapon at Astaire's head.

And felt his attack completely miss.

"Speed is both a blessing and a curse in Lordran." Astaire began, whipping Yu's shinai away with a flourish of his Parrying Dagger. " It can prove overwhelming to slower sorts like myself. That is…" He fastened the dagger to his belt as he returned his other hand to the parasol and twisted it behind his back. As Yu sat in a state of recently-parried paralysis, he felt his heart quiver in his chest as Astaire's eyes burned a hole straight through him. "...if you're not predictable enough to become your own worst enemy."

The parasol thrashed into Yu's side with Astaire's full force, sending him barrelling onto the grass and sending his shinai skyward. He wasn't dead, far from it, but he was more than a bit relieved that he'd chosen a plastic frame over a metal one. Because plastic had hurt. _Really hurt._ "Holy cow, I think Sensei broke a rib!" Teddie squeaked from the sidelines.

"Don't worry, I'm fine…" Yu said unconvincingly as he staggered to his feet. "...But jeez, I'm glad you're on our side. That's gonna leave a mark." He rubbed his side and cringed internally at the thought of how big the ensuing bruise was going to be. "Anything else I need to know?"

A twinge of guilt nibbled at Astaire's chest as he watched Yu right himself and catch his breath. Perhaps he'd overdone it a little. "Er… yes, durability. As you no doubt remember, katanas are quick to break under pressure. You must be careful not to be too antsy all at once."

"Okay, good to know..." Yu panted as he exhaled heavily, the last in a string long enough to almost be worrying. "I think I'm gonna tag out for a sec, if that's alright… Yosuke, you feeling up for taking my place?"

Maracas rattling in time as he quaked on the spot, Yosuke bristled stiffly. "You want me to fight him after seeing _that?!_ Are you shitting me?!" He pointed an accusing maraca at Yu in particular. "His Shadow almost cut my fricking head off, and that's when _he_ was debilitated and _I_ wasn't! It's like the scales have tipped the complete opposite way!"

"That was a Shadow that you pissed off last time, hurry up and grow a pair!" Chie insisted as she slapped him roughly on the back, knocking him forward as Yu quickly hopped back in amongst the rest of his friends.

Sensing he was as enthusiastic as water was dry, Astaire tipped his head in a slight bow. "I assure you, Mr. Hanamura, I'm not my Shadow. I doubt things will end as poorly as they did previously." He assured him before swinging the parasol up to his shoulder again.

Comparing their weapons, Yosuke couldn't help but gulp slightly. He seemed just a little bit outclassed without Susano-o backing him up. "Yeah… not as poorly, right. Without healing magic, it could end up a whole lot worse." He muttered before he settled into his usual battle stance. "Guess that's just my incentive to not get caught. Hit me with your best shot!"

Later on, Yosuke gravely wished he hadn't added that last part.

* * *

" _Because I wasn't watching her."_

As much as Rise had tried, Astaire's words from the day before reverberated around in her head like an undying echo around a cavern. Her eyes followed him as he twisted and leapt around on the grass, the tails of his coat flowing in his wake as he positioned himself and swung his entire body weight into his attacks. As she followed him for longer, it was almost as though he were moving in slow motion.

His face was _so_ hard. So determined. It was like he had two different settings depending on the situation. The face he wore into danger, and the one he wore when she inquired about how she looked in a swimsuit.

...Still couldn't stop thinking about it. His words bunched up her guts and made her want to smile until she tore her head in half. And yet, she couldn't stop _over_ thinking it too. That perhaps his words hadn't meant what she'd thought. That it'd been a sign of something else going on in his head. That he'd just been doing his job. That he'd been-

"Rise-chan? Hellooo?" Chie's voice interrupted her thoughts as she waved a hand in front of her face. "Glad to see you've come back to Earth with the rest of us." Chie beamed as she sat down next to her, wrapping her arms around her knees as she got comfortable on the grass.

Realising she'd been in a world of her own, Rise blinked herself lucid and regained her bearings. Everyone reclined on the ground, savouring the crisp air and cool, sunny breeze. They watched the bouts between Yosuke and Astaire with interest, save for Yukiko, who was pestering Yu about the bruise on his side worriedly.

"Ouch. Looks like that's Yosuke out for the count." Chie observed as he picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself off. "Guess that's what he gets for not taking his advice."

Rise blinked again. She hadn't even noticed Yosuke had fallen. "Eh? What just happened? What advice?" She asked as she shook her head.

Something halfway between a spluttered cough and a noise of confusion jumped up Chie's throat. "What ju-? How spaced out _were_ you?! You've been sitting here the entire time, how could you not notice what happened?!"

"I guess I just wasn't… watching… him." Rise slowed to a pause.

Wait.

Waaaaaaait.

...There was no way, right? It was just a coincidence, wasn't it? He hadn't been watching her for the same reason _she'd_ been watching _him_ , right? Because she could guess why she'd been doing it all too easily.

It felt like the dial was beginning to move off of 'maybe'. Perhaps it had been moving for far longer than she cared to admit.

"I wouldn't blame you for being mentally preoccupied. You _were_ both in the news recently." Naoto's words served as a much-welcomed distraction as she gave Rise a gentle look. "Even still, I would like to hope you've been well in spite of such things."

"Aww, are you worried about me, Naoto-kun~?" Rise grinned as she playfully pinched Naoto's cheek, giggling at her unamused expression as she did so. "I'd be more worried about yourself if you get much more exposure. Wouldn't want the Detective Prince getting more fans than she can handle, right?" She said with a wink.

"I-If you insist." Naoto said as she glanced away cutely. Gosh, if only Kanji-kun were…

"Hell's goin' on down here? We takin' turns beatin' the crap outta Yosuke-senpai?" Speak of the devil, Kanji appeared at the top of the steep incline at everyone's backs, peering down with some kind of large paper bag clutched in his hand.

"What took you so long, Kanji? You were going to have Naoto-kun worried sick if you took much longer!" Rise chirped, taking joy at Kanji's near-tumble down the hill when she'd brought it up.

"Th-That is a complete fabrication." Naoto said quickly and quietly as she suddenly felt the urge to hide under the brim of her hat.

"Ooh, I get it!" Teddie bounced onto his feet and began sniffing around the bag Kanji was carrying, "You were off getting snacks and popcorn for us to eat while we watch Yosuke get the snot beat out of him, right Kanji?!" He asked enthusiastically, right before Kanji whipped the bag away from him and jabbed him in the stomach to send him rolling back down the hill.

"Can it, Ted, it ain't snacks." Kanji grumbled, reaching the bottom of the hill and placing the bag next to Yu. "Here, Senpai. 'S for you." Looking twice as puzzled as everyone else, Yu went to peer into the bag before Kanji shot down and clamped his hand over the top. "Don't frickin' open it in front of everyone! What're you, nuts?!"

...Well _that_ seemed counterproductive. "Why not? I'm sure they all want to know what it is just as much as I do." Yu shrugged,

"'Cause it's… it's…" Kanji started and stopped, trying his best to tell him what the item in question was while _not_ telling him at the same time. "Look, it's jus' something to make up for what I said the other day, thass' all. Felt I kinda needed to after bein' such an ass."

"The reason we're gathered here now is because you were entirely correct." Naoto quickly jumped in. Perhaps a little too quickly to not sound completely defensive. Sensing as much, she cleared her throat. "You shouldn't have to make up for anything."

Surprise lit up on Kanji's face as he and Naoto's eyes met, then quickly _un-_ met as both broke off from each other, glancing away in thought.

Guess if Naoto was saying it, it must've been true. "I-If ya think so. Speakin' a' which…" Kanji cringed as Yosuke failed to dodge a hit from Astaire's parasol and cartwheeled onto the grass again. "...I'll ask again. Hell's this all about?"

"We're trying to beat up Stairry-kun in case we need to beat up someone like him from _his_ world too!" Teddie explained. "Not that you'd think it, because Yosuke's really eating dirt over there."

" _I heard that!"_ Yosuke shouted as he lay flat on his back.

Many more losses like that and there wasn't going to be much of Yosuke left to spar with. "Hey, take me on next! Try beatin' someone who ain't as scrawny as Yosuke-senpai for a change!" Kanji grinned as he rolled up his sleeves and swiped up the half-sized tatami mat from the grass.

" _I heard that too!"_ Yosuke moaned as he propped himself up on the ground.

"Yeah, yeah, you got your hearin' aid turned up real high today, we get it." Kanji bent down and half-assisted, half-threw Yosuke off the ground and out of he and Astaire's way. The ground seemed to shake underfoot as he and Astaire stood at lengths from one another, eyes ablaze and souls alight on both sides. "Don't go cryin' when I kick your ass. I've roughed up plenty of dudes before I even had a Persona." Kanji grinned.

"Not as many as I have, I'd estimate." Astaire grinned back, parting his legs and spacing his hands apart on the parasol. "Come now, show me what a shieldsman lacking a sword can do!"

"You got it!"

* * *

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Every step Yosuke took seemed to sting him in a different place as he limped over to everyone else, his clothes stained and dirty, his hair like a bird's nest. "What I wouldn't give to have Susano-o back." He complained as he fell and sat next to everyone else.

"And to think, you were so confident at first! That'll teach you to count your eggs before they hatch in one basket!" Teddie hopped over to tease him, wagging a finger and shaking his head comically.

As much as Yosuke wanted to raise a fist to him, that seemed like far too much effort for now. "That's not how that saying goes, you dingus." Yosuke sighed as he threw himself onto his back and gazed up at the sky, maracas sounding out gently as they rolled from his hands. "You'd think having two weapons would make this sort of thing a bit easier."

"Oh, shoot, that reminds me!" Yosuke rolled over as Rise suddenly perked up beside him, turning around on her knees to face everyone else head on. "Something weird happened at work the other day! Someone else used Astaire-kun's first name!"

All at once, with the exception of Kanji and Astaire, the team was set on red alert, backs straightening in unison. "Seriously?! Who was it?! Did they look like one of those weirdo suit guys?!" Yosuke asked first.

Rise shook her head. "Nuh uh. He's this guy who's been at my studio for a while now. He's... " A complete douchebag. "...kind of a creeper. He doesn't have a moustache, _or_ a suit, but he still knew Astaire-kun's first name! Doesn't that seem a little fishy?!"

Fishy didn't do it justice. For anyone outside the TV World to know Astaire's first name was reason for concern in and of itself. People actively learning it from somewhere when _nobody_ had mentioned it was worrying. "I can imagine one of two scenarios." Naoto spoke up, already having retrieved her notebook. "One, either you or Astaire-san simply let his name slip by accident and didn't realise it-" Rise breathed in to strenuously deny ever doing such a thing, until- "-or two, this so-called 'suited man' is someone who either is close to, or works inside, Takura Productions, and he passed the name on that way."

Ice lined Rise's chest as she entertained the notion. "You mean… we could be being spied on? Like, _all the time?"_

Naoto paused and bit her lower lip before answering. "...It's worth taking into consideration."

Holy crap. Hooooly crap that did not sit well. That did not sit well with Rise at all. Mostly because it made a lot of sense. It'd have explained how the suited man had known where to find them every time before. All he had to do was follow her and Astaire when they went to Inaba.

...Hang on, that wasn't right. "Wait. If he's someone who works with the studio, and that's how the name got passed on… how would he have been able to follow us all the way to Inaba? Without being able to go inside the TV?" To say nothing of following she and Astaire to Okina of all places. Neither of the three were exactly a stone's throw away from each other.

The entire team leaned back in thought, stroking chins, drumming on lips and running hands through hair all the while. "...Maybe he _can_ go inside the TV. Maybe he even has a Persona" Yosuke offered.

"Without someone to throw him in in the first place? I doubt it." Yu said as he mulled the situation over, leaning back on the grass and staring at the clouds passing idly by. "...We need to catch him. Whoever he is, if we can confront him we can get some answers."

"Somehow I think that's going to be easier said than done…" Yukiko said grimly, leaning back and lying on the grass parallel to Yu. "So far it's been a lot of 'him finding us' rather than the other way around."

As much as everyone might've liked to tell her she was wrong, that at least one of them had the slightest hint of a clue as to where they might start, they couldn't. She wasn't wrong, far from it. They had no idea who he was. Hell, they didn't even have a _name_ for him. Given that his possible base of operations was from anywhere between Okina, Inaba and the Takura Productions lot, it didn't exactly nail him down very solidly.

When at last Naoto shut her notebook after hunting for a solution, everyone else knew there was little hope for the rest of them. They lay back and watched the ongoing sparring session before them, wondering all the while about what possible methods they could use to even begin hunting the suited man down.

Frankly, catching the moon with a butterfly net sounded easier.

* * *

Sweat ran from Kanji and Astaire's brows like they'd just come in from a rainstorm. They panted heavily, their weapons laid into the ground as they each struggled to catch their respective breaths. Even still, their gazes were ironclad, roaring with a fire that spluttered and shrunk, but never went out. Their muscles ached, their lungs burnt, the sweat blinded and blurred them as they closed the distance between one another.

Sparks flew, electricity filled the air. Their faces were inches apart. Kanji's throat croaked as his voice struggled to free itself from his chest. But when at last they did- "You… wanna call this a draw?" -he exhaled in exasperation.

After a brief pause wherein his face lay blank, Astaire did the same. "Absolutely." He sighed. His head landed on Kanji's shoulder - and vice versa - as they slumped forward and rested against each other's weight. As meagre a form of rest as it proved to be, it was so welcome that both lads were loathe to lose it. "I think… I'm going to lie down before the next bout… if that's alright with you…" Astaire swallowed, trying and failing to wet his throat.

Parasol and tatami mat slipping from their grasps to the ground, both combatants clumsily lumbered over to their audience of friends relaxing on the grass, seemingly absorbed in a collective state of deep thought.

Deep thinking sounded nice.

"Holy cow, you two really went at- _IT!"_ Rise squeaked at the end as Astaire slammed face-first onto the grass with an almighty _thump_ , limp and motionless.

Resting sounded better.

"...You don't look so good."

"Mff ffrffrry ffrf." Astaire muffled out through a mouthful of grass and dirt. Seeing his energy was rivalling that of a granite statue, Rise worked her fingers underneath him and rolled him onto his side. His face was covered in grass stains and bruises. "I'm perfectly fine." He repeated clearly this time, expression unchanged.

"Sure as hell didn't look fine on the walk over." Kanji said with a grin as he managed to lift his head.

"Only as well as yourself, I think you'll find." Astaire grinned back. "Although I meant what I said. I haven't felt as thrilled since that incident with the piano the other day." He mused as he allowed his weight to shift to his back, smiling contentedly as he lapped up the fresh summer air.

"Wait. What incident with a piano?" Naoto asked, flicking back through her notebook to where she kept her notes on Astaire's muddled past.

At which point, Rise stepped in. "He was messing around with…" Kanami. "...a keyboard the other day." Focus, Rise, focus. That wasn't important right now. "Someone I work with kept on telling us the names of all the stuff he could remember playing. Lotsa jazz and stuff, I think."

From behind Naoto, lying on her back with her head rested on her hands, Chie let out a thoughtful hum. And another. And another. "How's that meditation working out for you?" Yosuke asked as his face appeared in her field of vision.

Amidst the inevitable _'I'm not meditating you doofus'_ and other such protests, Naoto raised a curious eyebrow. "Is something troubling you. Chie-senpai?"

Her spat with Yosuke interrupted, Chie's face shifted from fury to thoughtful in the blink of an eye. "Eh, it's nothing, really. It's just…" She paused to cross her arms and legs, closing her eyes in thought. "After all this stuff Astaire-san remembers how to do in our world, I got to wondering…"

" _...What if he's originally from our world, or something?"_

The tip of Naoto's pencil snapped.

The grass stopped swaying. The wind didn't blow. The fish in the river ceased jumping. The sound of the river on the banks seemed to fade away.

Everyone's eyes bulged out of their heads. Kanji's jaw loosened and hung. Astaire felt every fibre of his body shudder in shock and then freeze over.

"Th-Thass' why he knew how to swear the first time we met him!" Kanji pieced together.

"That's why he knew how to use chopsticks right from the get-go, and why he knows how to play all those old songs!" Rise added alongside him.

Holy shit, Chie was right.

'Knight' Astaire wasn't a knight at all. He wasn't from Lordran. He was from _their_ world.

"W-Wait one blasted second!" Astaire yelled. It was only after yelling and catching everyone's attention that he realised he hadn't exactly planned a response out. He stammered and tripped over his words as his brain struggled to piece itself together. "I… I-I can't be from your world! It doesn't make sense, it's impossible!"

"Why?" Yukiko asked pointedly.

Again, Astaire realised he hadn't thought this through as well as he could've. "Because… I just can't be! How could I…?"

No, wait. Think. Breathe. Slow down.

They were wrong. They had to be. Something inside him was screaming it at him. But _why?_

And then, it hit him. "Alright, alright, hold on. Say Ms. Satonaka is correct, and I _am_ originally from this world. How exactly do you propose I got to Lordran in the first place, then? Answer me that!" He shouted accusingly, thrusting a finger towards the Investigation Team.

He had to be from Lordran. Lordran was all he knew. He could've been from nowhere else. He couldn't be _so_ fundamentally wrong about who he once was as to be blind to where he first came from, right?

...Right?

Ignoring the steadiness of his conviction, his question gave everyone else pause. For a moment, it seemed like Occam's Razor was about to slice through this whole mystery like a hot knife through butter. It all made too much sense, after all. Such sense that it _had_ to be the only proper answer.

And yet. "...I'm not sure." Naoto finally admitted. As everyone exhaled in exasperation in her wake, it seemed as though they'd all reached the same conclusion. "From what you've told us of your world, the stability of time and space seems a bit less stable than our own. To walk from such a setting into our world seems at least _probable._ Vice versa…"

"Not so much." Yu finished for her. "But don't tell me it doesn't sound even _slightly_ convincing. We might not know the answer now, but there _has_ to be one." He said, his brow furrowed and low. From the look he was being given, Astaire could begin to feel that Narukami-brand pressure beginning to rest on his shoulders, threatening to rip his arms clean from his sides. "Whatever the answer is, Astaire-san, you'll need to face it head-on eventually."

Rise watched as Astaire's gaze fell to the ground. It mightn't have been as evident to everyone else as it was to her, but she could practically see the mental gymnastics going on inside his head just by looking at his face. His lips twitched and shifted as he gnawed at the back of them. His eyes narrowed subtly as his cheeks tensed and rose. He would let his hands fall loose, then ball them back up again. He'd ball them so hard that she almost expected his fingernails to start drawing blood.

Finally, Astaire let out a sigh and ran a hand down his face. "I… I don't want to dwell on this right now." He shook his head before he began pulling himself up off the ground, brushing the stray blades of grass off his coattails. "Some of you still need to spar with me, I believe." He said flatly as he strode off to grab his parasol anew.

He tried his damndest to rid the annoying buzz of busy thoughts from his mind, but what few practice swings he took with the parasol failed to swat them away. If anything, it only made things worse.

Hadn't he always known how to swing a greatsword? Always known where his allegiances lay? What his place in the grand scheme of things in Lordran had been? What _meaning_ his life had been given? As far as he could remember, he had.

And if he didn't have that to lean on, what _did_ he have?

He had to be from Lordran. He had to be.

From afar, Yu watched him with uncertain eyes. They seemed to have stumbled upon an answer, but it wasn't one Astaire seemed ready to accept.

He felt as though the concerns about his past suddenly became that much more cumbersome on his mind.

_Social Link Rank UP!_

_Lust - Rank 3_

_Knight Astaire_

* * *

It was only after rolling around and instructing Teddie on how best to adapt his fighting style that Astaire came to an extremely unwelcome realisation. "C'mon, fight back! Haven't you ever had to fight a girl before?!" Chie roared as she recoiled from her latest kick, leaving Astaire doubled over and clutching his midriff.

Gods above, even through the soft, padded soles of her sandals, Astaire felt like she was going to punt his spine out of him after going through his stomach for a shortcut. "None that-" Astaire stopped to briefly cough his lungs up. "-I was on good terms with. You're no half-spider, half-woman, that's assured."

"Half-what, half- _what?"_ Rise asked from the sidelines, suddenly lucid of the cold chill that had instinctively slipped down her back.

Considering his bout with Chie hadn't been much of a bout at all, given he was the only one bruised and beaten in the end, Astaire was left with a moment to ponder something while looking at Rise's stricken expression. Something which, until now, he hadn't realised had been bugging him. From the tip of his tongue, he finally put a finger on it. "Say, I've been wondering. Why doesn't- _GAK!"_

From straightening himself up, Astaire quickly began falling back again as he suddenly had a face full of Chie. She'd leapt into the air, wrapped her legs around his neck -not an easy task given their height difference- and somehow _spun herself around to his back,_ whereupon she used her momentum to spin him on a heel and slam him face-first into the ground, with a set of powerful thighs slowly choking the life out of him.

"Oh man, I've always wanted to do that!" Chie whooped, pumping her fists in the air as Astaire pounded the ground with his, his face turning blue as oxygen became a rare commodity in his lungs. "Whoops, sorry. Couldn't resist." Chie said sheepishly as she loosened her grip and stood back up.

As much as he wanted to continue with his previous point, finding the shattered pieces of his esophagus struck Astaire as more important for the initial few seconds of his freedom. Sensing that his eyes _weren't_ going to pop out of his head, he cleared his newly-repaired throat and continued. "As I was saying. Why doesn't Ms. Kujikawa have a weapon proficiency of any sort? All the rest of you seem to, they're even unique amongst yourselves."

Suddenly the topic of conversation, Rise popped up on the spot with a perky hum. "Hm? Oh. that's because of Kouzeon. Every skill she has just makes other people stronger, she can't actually fight." Rise explained. "Not that I'm complaining, really! Not after getting hit by that Wolf-thing back in the forest…" She mused, running a hand across her side where Kouzeon had been shattered. The pain was gone, but she remembered it as clearly as crystal.

Not that Astaire was complaining either. Rise? In combat? Gods above, he almost gave himself a heart attack just thinking about it. That being said, knowing how to use _something_ to defend herself didn't seem like a bad idea. A Soapstone could only summon him so quickly if they were separated after all.

" _...At least I'll have Rise-chan and Kanami-chan to help sort things out with me..."_

...No, she definitely needed a weapon. Down to his side went the Parasol, out of his coat came the Bottomless Box. He waggled a finger in Rise's direction to coax her over to him, and a few seconds later she was peering into the inky depths of the spatially-incoherent rectangle with him.

It had to be something that wasn't a longsword, a pair of daggers, a pair of boots, a fan, a set of claws, a shield or a gun.

After a moment's thinking and tapping his foot off the ground, Astaire plunged his hand into the box. "Give this a try." He said, retrieving the grip of… _something_ thick and metallic and offering it to Rise. She gripped it hesitantly, then nearly got dragged back into the box with a squeal as Astaire let go. "...Well, that's greathammers ruled out. How about an axe?" Astaire shrugged as he went delving again.

He stopped as a quick and thin pair of hands waved about in front of his face. "Nothing heavy! There's no way I could lug about stuff like you and Kanji can!" She assured him, pleading internally that his next suggestion wouldn't rip her arm off.

...Bugger. One more restriction. The list of possibilities was shrinking at a rather concerning rate. Something that wasn't any of the above _and_ it was light?

"Um… Right, well…" Come on, come on, he had to have _something!_ Caesti? No, she probably wouldn't appreciate that. A scimitar or rapier? No, they actually weighed a fair bit, even if they paled in comparison to his usual toolset. "...Give me a minute here."

"Hey, what's that?" Rise asked, taking the initiative and plunging her own arm into the box as well, wrapping her fingers around the item that had caught her eye. It felt leathery and smooth, but most importantly, it was _very_ light to hold. Bringing her prize out into the light, it became immediately evident what it was. "It's… a whip?"

It was indeed a leather whip. A whip which looked to be in _exceptional_ condition, too. Almost to the point where it looked like it had never been used. But that wasn't the best thing about it. The best thing about it was that Rise could feel a sort of… _rush_ when she touched it. Like someone had run their fingers up the insides of hers. She felt her hand settle comfortably against the leather, felt her stance change on instinct as the length of the whip unfurled to her feet. Something was there. Something was there! Did this mean she could use it?!

"You want to try that? Have you ever used a whip before?" Astaire asked, eyebrow raised.

Just as Rise was about to say 'Yeah, I think so', she stopped herself short.

Wait. Wait. Holy cow. She could do the thing. She could do that thing she'd always seen in the movies and wanted to do! This was perfect!

Rise looked down blankly at the tip of the whip before giving it a rather pathetic flick. The end flopped up from the ground slightly, before losing steam and flopping back down lifelessly. A sorry attempt to be sure. "Jeez, I guess I haven't…" Rise said in her most convincing 'downtrodden' voice. Which was pretty convincing, if she did say so herself. Then she balled up her fists and twinkled her eyes brightly at Astaire. "Show me how to use it!"

"Certainly." Astaire said, holding out a hand for the whip.

Wait, crap, that wasn't right! He was going to mess it all up, the big blue dolt! Rise shied the whip away from his hand as he drew in nearer. "Um! Actually, I'm not that good at learning stuff by watching! I… I'm a…" She turned and glared at Naoto for the proper term, eyes like daggers.

"An active learner." Naoto finished for her.

"An active learner! That's the one! I gotta do it myself to get it right!" Rise whipped back around with a smile on her face. Then she decided to lay on the implication good and thick, just so he'd get the message. She twisted both hands on the whip's grip, she coyly drew a circle in the grass with her foot. She fluttered her eyelashes and gave him her most potent puppy-dog stare. "So… y'know."

From the look on his face, rubbing his chin and eyeing up the sky in thought, it was fair to assume he _didn't_ know. "...I'm afraid I don't follow."

Rrrgh. Rise made a note in her head to show him more of the movies she'd gotten this idea from some time in the future. "Oh, come here!" She gave up and twirled around, seating her back against Astaire's stomach and placing the palm of his right hand on top of her own. "Show me how to move like this, okay?" She whispered to him gently, seated comfortably under his chin.

She felt the heat in his hand multiply tenfold as he tentatively affixed his fingers around her own. No doubt his face was the same, knowing him. Truth be told, from the way hers was beginning to feel, she was glad she was nestled safely out of his immediate line of sight too.

His hands were bigger than hers, and calloused in more places than one. No doubt the result of swinging around such heavy weapons all night and day. His arms dwarfed hers, strong, sturdy and capable. She felt his quickening heartbeat on her back, and the warmth from his torso bleeding into hers as his chest rose and fell gently. Even if it was a little out of rhythm.

Head under his, wrapped around her like a blanket of muscle and steel, Rise felt everything that'd been sitting in the back of her mind slowly melt away. Kaoru wasn't a problem. Her concert would go fine. Her songwriting was going great. The suited man couldn't touch her. In his presence, she felt like nothing could hurt her, and the thought calmed her immensely.

More than it calmed Astaire, that was for damn sure.

"Er, ri-right then. I-if that's what it takes." He stammered, suddenly very keenly aware that everyone else had eyes on the both of them. And that they were outside. And that somebody else could've been watching. And they might've had a camera on them. And-

"Is everything alright?" Rise asked from below his chin.

There were so many things _not_ right with this scenario that Astaire hadn't the mental capacity to register them all in one instant. But if this was the only way to teach her, it was the only way to teach her. "Right as rain. L-Let's begin."

Handling her like she were made of twigs and leaves, and he were made of gasoline and wayward sparks, Astaire slowly worked Rise through the motions needed to at least crack the whip consistently. Which was easier said than done, considering he wasn't exactly an expert himself.

Whips, in his experience, had proved slow and cumbersome weapons. Which was rich coming from the fellow who paraded around swinging a seven-foot tall length of metal to and fro. But at least said metal had the decency to be _heavy,_ too. Whips weren't. They were awkward, weak, and overall, rather rubbish. But any weapon suited to Rise was better than no weapon at all.

"You can also swing it overhead, like this-" Like articulating a life-sized Risette doll, Astaire guided her hand as carefully as he dared, trying to ignore the soft, slender feeling of her fingers and arms tracing his own. "N-Not that you can do that now, since I'm…" He cleared his throat for the sixth time in a minute. "...Well, you get the idea."

"Yeah, I think I do." Rise nodded, secretly loving every moment. His flustered demeanour. How gentle and careful he was being, despite how heavy-handed he seemed most of the time. How someone capable of felling a lightning-spewing dragon-thing could handle her with such care. She loved it.

She loved the feeling so much, that she could almost hear the dial in her head click off 'Maybe'.

Did she like Astaire? Like, _really_ like him?

Yes, she absolutely did. No way would she feel this happy with anyone else in his place.

...Oh, jeez. She liked him. A whole lot. The more she thought about it, the more she felt the inside of her head peak to a boiling point. Before long, what started as a lesson in whip-cracking turned into a contest of who could out-blush the other. Rise clammed up. Astaire realised she'd clammed up and clammed right along with her, hand frozen on her own.

"Get a room!" Chie called over between cupped hands, snapping them both out of their respective clammings at once.

_THEY'D JUST HAD A MOMENT AND ALL THEIR FRIENDS HAD BEEN WATCHING. AAAAAAGH._

Repelled like matching magnet ends, Astaire and Rise broke off from one another and put some space between themselves. One embarrassed beyond compare and the other strongly regretting she hadn't tried doing this in private as she hid her face behind her hands.

"Do you… know how to use it now?" Astaire asked after an awkward pause, in which he'd told every blood cell in his face to _make themselves scarce before he thrashed the lot of them senseless._

"I- I think so, sure." Rise said, focusing on the fresh leather in her hand instead of lingering on… _that._ That, she could mull over later. "Guess that means I've gotta fight you now too, huh?"

From the way Astaire's face dropped as if his soul had suddenly been siphoned through his stomach, she could guess what answer she'd get. "Fight?! _You?!_ Absolutely not!" He barked. "I'd sooner fight Lord Gwyn himself! No, no, that simply won't do!" Brow thoroughly furrowed, he leaned down and hoisted the parasol back up to his side, pointing it at Rise herself. "Simply… try to disarm me for now, I suppose."

Disarming, huh? Could she manage that? Rise looked at her fingers coiling around the whip's grip and gave it a squeeze, as if to ask it directly. From the way something inside it coiled back up her arm with a jolt, she suspected she could.

Time for a little idol-style showing off.

She gave it a test flick. A loud _SNAP_ filled the air, echoing around the river and abruptly attracting the attentions of all her friends on the sidelines, heads popping up like a game of whack-a-mole.

"Good, you've got the basics down." Astaire nodded. "Now try to- _AGH!"_

Mid-sentence, Rise had twirled on the spot, bringing her whip above her head and launching the tip for Astaire's right hand with masterful precision, whereupon it erupted with another loud _SNAP,_ which quickly parted the parasol from Astaire's hand before he'd even had time to react.

From the way it stung, as well as the wet, warm feeling running towards the ground, it seemed she'd drawn blood, too. "My word… Are you sure you've never-?" Astaire began, only to be interrupted by another _SNAP._ Then another. And another three more.

The initial rush of the impact hit Rise with an adrenaline rush the likes of which she'd never felt before. So much so that she couldn't resist cutting loose for a while. The sounds of vicious snapping filled the air, accompanied by the brown blur of leather and the whistling of air as it tore through the atmosphere. Rise's whole body worked itself into a billowing wave of motion, flowing like water. She twirled and twisted in dance-like motions, all the while the air around her exploded with noise and action.

It felt like being caught in the middle of a daytime fireworks display, one which Astaire shielded his face and backed away to free himself from. He'd never seen _anyone_ do things like that with a whip, he'd never even thought it possible. But the violent cracking in his ears, and the snake-like motions to his eyes, neither lied. Her skills were all too real.

Finally, after nearly giving her bodyguard PTSD from all the racket, Rise doubled over with her hands on her knees, panting heavily and gasping for air. " _Hah… Hah…_ Phew… how'd I do?" She asked innocently, beaming at Astaire like nothing was out of the ordinary.

He narrowed his eyes at her behind his crossed arms. "...Are you _sure_ you haven't used a whip in combat before?"

"Not that any of us have seen!" Teddie shouted over. A statement which Rise corroborated with a quick nod of her head.

Well. That certainly had been _something._ Astaire lowered his arms to cross them in front of his chest. "Then I daresay we've found your weapon proficiency, Ms. Kujikawa. I've never seen a whip handled better. Well done." He said proudly, giving her a gentle smile.

Aw, _jeez._ Rise giggled and rubbed the back of her head, trying her best not to look as giddy as she felt inside. _He was proud of her._

"Incidentally, I suppose that means I can give you what few whips I've found elsewhere. It seems you're better suited to all of them than I am."

"Really? I'm _that_ good?" Rise perked up, bunching her hands together and raising her shoulders in joy. "Not that I wanna brag, but I felt like I was ready to take on- _WHATTHEHELLSTHAT?!"_

A sentiment echoed by most spectators on the sidelines, too. Especially one particular "What the shit?" From Kanji.

It was a scorpion tail. A giant, flexile, _spiked_ scorpion tale, which was all black and shiny and gross and _oh god it made sounds when it moved and ewewewewew get it away nononononono._

"What? It's the tail of the Sanctuary Guardian from Oolacile. It's liable to be the best whip weapon I own." Astaire shrugged, stopping to examine the massive, pointed end of the tail proper. "You might want to be careful though, I'm fairly certain the poison in it could topple a giant."

" _Fairly_ certain?!" Rise fumed.

"...Well, I haven't _actually_ used it in combat before. But I'm sure it'd make a fine armament in the hands of someone who-"

As Astaire took one step forward, Rise took an infinity steps backwards. _"KEEP THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!"_ She shrieked, quickly unfurling her whip again and brandishing it with both hands. "Don't make me whip you again! I will, I mean it!"

Considering the blood from his hand still hadn't stymied any, Astaire suddenly saw the sense in not pursuing the issue any further. "Very well, then. Should you wish to make use of it in the future, I'd be more than-"

The creepy-as-shit insecty-thing tucked back in his coat, Rise surged forward and squared up to her knight as best she could, hitting him with a stare that could've bored holes through bedrock. Like her Naoto-and-Kanji-are-getting-together stare, but somehow _twice as strong._ "Never ever ever ever ever _EVER_ bring that out again. Got it?!"

Not one to argue with a girl with a whip, Astaire gulped. "Noted."

And with that, Rise's combat training fell to a close.

* * *

There was only one way to ensure everybody knew how best to fight combatants from Lordran, and it wasn't fighting off one person with a single weapon type. A single change and their strategies would need to change right along with it, and if the change was too dramatic, they'd be ushered toward their graves all the sooner.

Thus, the solution had been clear. Four-on-one, and he was allowed to swap weapons throughout.

It wasn't as easy as it sounded.

Chie's ground-based kicks rooted her to the spot, leaving her open for Astaire's caesti to gently graze her face. He didn't launch another punch, but he easily could have.

Which was better than Yosuke was faring, at least. In the face of a wildly-swinging halberd, he suddenly felt as though anywhere within ten feet of Astaire was the wrong place to be. Every time he approached, he was forced to back off again.

Kanji had been allowed to swap from the tatami mat to a proper greatshield. Mostly because the former didn't seem able to withstand a full-on thrashing from a greataxe. The force was so wildly different from when they'd been fighting with joke weapons. If he hadn't been as big and strong as he was, Kanji reckoned his shoulders would've shattered to dust long ago.

Finally, Yu. Since their first bout, he endeavoured to mix up the timing on his attacks, keeping out of any sort of rhythm to throw Astaire off. But that alone wasn't helping him. Hiding behind a shield and poking at him with a spear didn't seem like a complicated, or entirely brave, strategy, but it was enough to keep him at bay.

Before long, weapons littered the ground as Astaire switched and swapped at lightning speed. Each one a new challenge, each one causing everyone to more smartly consider exactly how the approached him, if they could at all.

They were learning. And they were learning quickly.

They continued learning quickly for another hour on top of that, too. Smarts and stamina rolled into one.

"Alright, enough!" Astaire called out, gasping for air and covered in bruises. Where there weren't bruises, there were footprints, and where there weren't footprints, there was a lingering indentation from the pattern adorning Kanji's greatshield. Gods, he was a hard hitter. "I think it's fair to say that you all know what to do in the face of a real assailant, right?"

"Yeah." Yosuke dropped his maracas and staggered unsteadily back towards Yukiko, Rise and Teddie. "Use a frickin' Persona instead." He half-said, half-sighed as he hung his tired head.

Ah. Right. He'd forgotten about that. "...I suppose that _would_ make things easier, yes. But you can't rely on them alone. In a tight spot, your own martial prowess might be all you can rely on." He said, turning to his remaining combatants with his hands on his hips and smiling widely. "And I think yours can be safely relied upon, after today."

"Man, I sure hope so, I'm pooped." Kanji sighed as he took off after Yosuke, rubbing at some of the bruises he himself had sustained.

Chie let out a worried whine as she examined her legs, riddled with bruises all the way down. "Aww, how am I gonna explain all these at school tomorrow…?" She complained, slumping over as she walked off.

Seeing as their bumps and sores were liable to get worse before they got better, everyone took the time to lie back on the grass, limbs spread out and tired, lungs venting off heat as they lapped up the summer air. They lay and watched the sun begin to lower into the horizon, painting the Samegawa with a crisp orange hue as the air began to cool down further.

Basking in such tranquility, it felt a shame to interrupt it. Everyone sat and relaxed without a word, with some -such as Teddie and Yosuke- going so far as to nod off to sleep entirely.

The silence wasn't long to last, however. "Hey, how's everyone feel about exploring more of the TV tomorrow?" Yu asked, rolling onto his side to face everyone properly. "I mean- if you don't want to, that's fine too. It's just in case… well, what happened last time happens again."

"I'm down for it." Kanji said, pushing himself off his stomach and onto his elbows. "Jus' as long as you don't set nuthin' on fire this time."

"No fires, I promise." Yu nodded seriously.

"And no big scary wolves with swords, either!" Rise added, her head popping up over Astaire's chest.

Uh. Well, that… wasn't as easily promised, exactly. Yu cleared his throat and to catch their resident Lordran Expert's attention. He rolled his head over, eyebrow raised, before Yu gave him a quick shrug of his shoulders. "Ah, right! No, you needn't worry, I'm fairly certain Sif was the only one!" He reassured everyone, noting how all of them simultaneously let out relieved sighs as they lay back down.

"...I've heard tell of bloody big cats roaming Darkroot Garden, though. I'm not sure about them." He added.

Oh, goddamnit.

"...Whatever the case is, does anyone have a problem with going in tomorrow?" Yu asked, awaiting at least one voice of resignation. His brow raised in surprise as none followed. "I guess that's it settled then." He grunted as he hoisted himself to his feet, brushed himself down and picked up his shinai from his side. He quickly gathered up the 'joke' weapons and stuffed them back into his sports bag, save for the parasol. Hoisting his cargo over his shoulder, he breathed deeply and let out a sigh. "If that's gonna be the case, I think you'd all be smart to go home and get some rest. Who knows what's waiting for us in there?"

With a quick wave and a jog up the stairs, Yu Narukami disappeared into the sunset.

Sensing the truth in his words, everyone gradually got up and began to move off towards their respective homes. Until- "Pardon me, everyone." Naoto cleared her throat and spoke. All eyes were suddenly on her as she flicked out her notebook. "Should anyone catch sight of the suited man between now and tomorrow, I implore you to tell me when and where as soon as possible. That will be our first step towards catching him."

Between _'No sweat'_ s, _'Got it'_ s and a single _'You betcha, Nao-chan!'_ from Teddie, everyone formed into smaller groups and went their separate ways. Rise and Astaire; Chie, Teddie and Yosuke; and Naoto and Kanji.

It didn't escape Rise's notice, however, that Kanji should've been walking with _them_ instead. "Aww, look at Kanji walking Naoto-kun home! He's such a big softie." She cooed once she was out of earshot.

" 'Concerned' would've been my first guess." Astaire said. He drew a step closer to Rise and nestled his hand inside his coat, his eyes scanning their surroundings constantly. "I wouldn't fancy letting _you_ walk home alone with these slinking, mustachioed fiends lingering about."

* * *

In Rise's mind, there was no doubt that she must've liked Astaire in some way she hadn't exactly done previously, because not once had she found herself peeking over the side of her bed and watching him sleep before this very night.

There were too many things to turn over in her head at once as she watched his face subtly twitch in the moonlight. Too many questions she'd found herself asking over and over again on the walk back over. If he really _was_ from their world, where was he from? Who had he been? Obviously he'd played the piano, so was he a musician of some kind?

...Although, to be honest, as important as those seemed, she couldn't deny that one question stood above the rest in terms of how often she'd asked it to herself.

Did he like her too? The same way she did him?

It… was okay to think so, wasn't it? Because as many times as she'd felt he would show even the _slightest_ hint of interest in someone else, he hadn't. He only seemed to act like as much of a big, blue goof around her. Then again, he _was_ supposed to be her bodyguard. And a Knight, and whatever else.

Had he not been a knight, or her bodyguard, would things be different between them? If he _had_ felt something, would he have said so already?

...She could always ask and find out. Maybe she could even tell him. Then he'd have to give her an answer.

_But what if she was wrong?_

Rise rolled herself back over into her bedsheets and exhaled into her pillow. If she was wrong, wouldn't that just make this entire situation all the more awkward? It was bad enough realising that she and Senpai were never going to work, at least she hadn't been _living_ with him too.

No. No, she had to be clever about it. Crafty about it. She was the master of matching _other_ people together -as proven by Kanji and Naoto, _thank you very much-_ so trying to match _herself_ with someone else would be easy! That was how it worked, right? Yeah, that was totally how it worked. Totally.

She just had to be careful, that's all. She'd let him know how she felt, one way or another. And in time, if he stopped being as remarkably dense as he was, maybe he'd even let _her_ know too.

Yeah. That sounded like a plan. A nice plan.

Feeling her mind settle to some semblance of rest, Rise lay her head back into her pillow. But not before she took one last peek over the end of her mattress.

"I'll get you to spit it out sooner or later. Just you wait, Astaire-kun."


	23. The March Into Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An emotional roadblock, sleep, and a conversation with a beast.

" _She wanted to talk to me~! she wanted to talk to me~! Ahahaha!"_

Gods, it had been hard enough trying to sleep and avoid listening to this tripe the night before, much less now. From behind eyes very firmly clamped shut, Astaire tried his best to ignore the incessant, childlike giggle of his Shadow orbiting around him, singing and hollering about talking to Rise the day before.

" _Gods, I still haven't gotten over it! Imagine! Being as bloody frustrated with your piddling about as I am! We have so much in common, she and I!"_ His Shadow continued, ceasing his orbiting to lean in and flick his human self in the bridge of the nose.

Right, that did it. "Oh, would you ever just _piss off?!"_ Astaire roared, reaching out to go for his lesser self's throat and falling short as he backstepped in time with him. Another plain white landscape surrounding the two of them. He had all the running space a pernicious little bastard could ask for. No use in trying to catch him now.

Which was a shame to think, because that annoying laugh of his was beginning to feel like a nail being hammered into his skull. That, along with that dung-eating sneer of his. _"Oi, I'm not the one who took your glasses off, I think you'll recall. In fact, I was the one who slipped them back on! No use getting ornery with me."_ The Shadow's hands whipped out of his coat pockets and pointed accusingly at Astaire himself. _"If you want to start getting prissy with anyone, you might want to start with the apple of your eye first."_

...Damn it. The yellow-eyed bastard was right. Rise _had_ taken off his glasses. "As if that matters any. Don't try and eschew my thoughts with your drivel."

" _What, you think I'm being dishonest, do you?"_ The Shadow asked, hands to his chest and his eyes wide. He began orbiting Astaire again, the sound of his shoes like a skull-rattling metronome. _"Go on. Admit it. Be honest about something that matters, for once."_

"I don't know what you're-"

The Shadow lunged at Astaire from behind and put him into a headlock. His grip was tight. Ironclad. As much as Astaire tried to claw his way out of it, he felt the bones of his own wrist dig deeper into his neck by the second. _"You were angry, weren't you? Absolutely fucking livid. Fuming that precious, innocent Ms. Kujikawa would dare wish to talk to me instead of you. Why, it's enough to make you want to pop your lid even now, isn't it?! You've been wearing a bloody mask all day, haven't you?!"_

At last, a breach in his defences let Astaire slip out from his other self's grasp. He was into his coat in an instant, bringing his Zweihander out with ease and raising it above his head, rage clouding his vision as he turned around, willed his muscles into motion and-

"Are you mad, Astaire-kun?" Rise had taken his Shadow's place, looking up at him with sorrowful eyes.

_CRASH._

His chest felt like it had imploded in on itself at the thought of what he'd very nearly done. His sword left a wide gash in the floor mere inches from the imaginary Rise's feet, the result of every fiber of his being willing himself _not_ to do it. He dropped the sword and hung his head low, clutching his temples as though he were trying to crush his skull with his bare hands.

He'd been angry. _Was,_ angry. That anything this abhorrent facsimile of himself should say would be trusted over his own word was a thought too infuriating to be put _into_ words. The longer he dwelled on it, the more he wished he could crush the loathsome, shadowy bastard all over again. As if that would solve anything. As if he'd asked to be brought out.

He was of two minds. Two truths lay solidly in his head, but neither were compatible. Like oil and water, they simply could not coexist.

He was angry. But it was Rise who he logically should've been angry at.

He should've been. But he couldn't be. He simply could not do it. Nothing short of her stabbing him in the back and twisting the knife would make him feel any better about being angry at her. He didn't _want_ to be angry at her. Bad things happened to those who angered him, and he couldn't hurt a hair on her head.

Far from being angry at her, the thought only made him angrier at himself.

" _A wise choice. You're just the poster child for forbearance, aren't you?"_ His Shadow asked, his voice making Astaire feel lightheaded as he whispered in his ear. _"I meant what I said back then. I won't accept anybody bringing her to harm. Not even you."_

Seemingly having made his point, the Shadow began to walk off, no doubt heading to lie dormant in the depths of his subconscious for the night. He'd had his fill.

"Wait. Tell me one thing."

The Shadow paused. Turned on a heel. Sneered and raised an eyebrow. _"Oh? Loathe to let me go, are you?"_

Astaire could only wish his own face didn't look as vexingly punchable all the time. "You know things I don't. Things about my past, so you _must_ know." He raised his head and locked eyes with his doppelganger, his own swimming with a mix of desperation and panic. "Am I originally from this world? The world of humans?"

…

…

The Shadow began to clap.

" _My my, I almost thought you'd forgotten about my last little riddle. Fine job, really."_

No. No, it couldn't be. He was lying.

" _You are correct. This world is as much your own as it is theirs."_ His Shadow's sneer widened, almost to where it seemed like it would stretch off his face entirely, as he watched his other self stare into space, eyes filled with a thousand-yard stare. _"I shall leave the details to your own imagination, I think. Ta-ta."_

Leaving the awful, awful truth in his wake, the Shadow receded back into the recesses of Astaire's mind, leaving him to stew in the silence.

* * *

He was human. _Had_ been human. Hadn't always had the Darksign branded in his eye. Hadn't always wandered a broken and decrepit world, doomed to die over and over until the end. He'd had a life in the world he now inhabited. And something had resulted in him losing it.

He might have had friends. Family. And every memory of them was diluted. Destroyed. Like a crystal-clear pond being polluted with dirt and filth, leaving nothing more than a foggy, indecipherable mess in its wake. Whatever life he'd had, it was now forever intangible to him.

It seemed the more Astaire learned about himself, the worse he felt. His mood didn't improve, even after his Shadow had departed. It wasn't much better when he felt himself begin to waken up, either.

It certainly shifted to something else when he became lucid of his surroundings, though.

He felt the soft fabric of his pyjamas shift and stir, disturbed by some unseen force behind his eyelids. The middle of his torso felt cold, then immediately felt warmer. Whatever was warming him felt smooth and soft. What's more, it began to move, sliding around to his right side.

Before curiosity restored his vision, his hearing caught something first. A whisper, as slight as a breeze against his ear, spoke gently, directly above his face. " _Please don't wake up. Please don't wake up."_

Astaire woke up. His eyelids shot wide open.

So did Rise's as she gasped, staring directly down at Astaire from a ninety degree angle. She was situated to his left. She was leaning forward to loom over him. Her arm was extended at a downwards angle.

_Her hand was fishing around his chest._

"Uh." Astaire's jaw hung loose as his face went white.

"Um." So too, did Rise's, as hers went red.

Her hand darted back to her, soon enough to not be ripped off as Astaire quickly scuttled back across the floor until he hit the wall, limbs naught but a blur. He eyed her up like she had just floated through the wall moaning and rattling chains. He attempted to untie the double-knot his tongue had tied itself into, and finally succeeded in time to ask: "What in Gwyn's name do you think you're doing?!"

Not as prone to scuttling away at lightspeed, Rise instead opted for burying her face in her hands, which surprisingly _didn't_ burst into flames upon making contact with her furious blush. "I-I'm so sorry! It's not what you think it is, really!"

That'd have been a big help, except Astaire wasn't sure _what_ to think. There were a couple reasons floating around in his head, but Rise's hand had dashed the waters and left him trying to piece any one of them into a coherent thought. Fishing not being an activity oft practiced in Lordran, he didn't fare very well.

"I, uh… See, I kinda wanted to…" Rise stopped and started, trying to think of how best to articulate her reasons without using the words 'feeling' or 'up'. "...I sorta wanted to try using that whip again. The one from yesterday. But you were asleep, and I didn't really wanna wake you up, and I _figured_ you'd have your box somewhere on you, so I -"

"That's quite enough, thank you!" Astaire hushed her, partly before she recounted what had just happened and also to let the poor girl get a much-needed breath in. He inhaled through his nose, exhaled through his mouth, rubbed his eyes and lumbered just-wokenly to his feet. Rise's reasons laid out before him, it now seemed a mite easier to regain his composure. "Right, right. Whip. _Where did I leave the whip?"_ He trailed off into a mumble, unbuttoning the top of his pyjamas and delving into the Bottomless Box anew.

Watching him intently, Rise couldn't help but raise an eyebrow for more than a few reasons. For one, did he _really_ sleep every night with that box strapped to his torso? What if he needed to roll over and ended up jabbing himself? That hardly seemed comfortable. Then again, him being him, it mightn't even bother him until it broke the skin altogether.

Skin. That was the other thing that made her raise an eyebrow. She recalled the feeling as it swept under her palm and between her fingers, however brief it had been.

Toned. Sturdy. Followed by intermittent spurts of rough and uneven.

"Do you… have scars, Astaire-kun?" She eventually asked, noting how his arm froze in place mid-search when she asked. "Like… a _lot_ of them?"

Astaire bit his bottom lip. "A fair share." He said quietly, elaborating no further than that.

It _had_ struck Rise that she couldn't recall ever seeing him without something on his torso. The most she'd seen had been a small sliver of skin shortly after he'd arrived. It seemed like after that, he'd really gone out of his way to _never_ show her anything more. Perhaps his scars were the reason.

However many scars he needed to be _that_ uncomfortable about them, Rise didn't want to think about.

"My Shadow confirmed it last night. The fact that I was once human." Astaire piped up, eager to change the subject. Not that his current one helped brighten his expression any. He tutted to himself and shook his head slightly, still gazing into space as he continued his search.

Honestly, Rise figured he'd have been a bit happier about not being native to a world filled with things trying to kill him. Even Earth at its worst wasn't as bad as the TV's version of Lordran seemed to be, and yet he still didn't look pleased about the whole situation.

Oh well. Time to make him look up and see the silver lining, then. "I guess it makes a lot of sense, looking back on it. I wonder what kind of life you had before all this started?" She wondered out loud, crossing her arms and twisting her torso in thought. "Something to do with the piano, anyway. Maybe you played in a band! Maybe you played in a cool little jazz bar somewhere in the city!" Rise offered, counting off the possibilities on her fingers. "Seeing how well you play, I bet you would've been _way_ popular."

"Popular with a crowd that I can no longer remember." Astaire mused morosely. "Gwyn knows, I may even have had a previous lover once upon a time, and I mightn't even recall her face."

Woah, woah, _woah,_ slow the hell down. This went from encouraging to _'RED ALERT'_ faster than Rise particularly cared for. Pining over someone else was bad enough, much less someone neither of them knew _even existed._ Time for some celebrity-tier backpedalling. "Pfffft! I-I mean, what are the odds of that? Not to mention, who says your Shadow's even telling the truth anyway? He could be saying all this stuff to mess with you! How do _any_ of us know we can trust him?"

For a split second, Astaire's gaze locked on to her. His eyes narrowed sharply and the smallest flash of his teeth peeked through his lips.

Something inside him seemed to mentally slap himself into shape and revert his expression to hard concentration, but the split second had said a lot, at least to Rise. Because _she'd_ trusted his Shadow at its word, and as much as Astaire tried to play off whatever effect it might've had on him, it'd still had one. He may have been bottling up his feelings, but the bottle was still see-through, open or otherwise.

She was halfway to a second apology -because bottling up _anyone's_ bad mood was a bad idea- when she had to haphazardly scramble to catch the whip that'd soared through the air towards her, as tossed by a suddenly-completely dressed Astaire.

She looked down at her own pink and white pyjamas. Wish she could do that.

Astaire's eyes dotted around the room, taking note of how cramped and not fit for combat training it was. Lots of little breakable things. Lots of _big_ breakable things, too. "Are you intending to practice in here?" He sidestepped around Rise and slowly began inching towards the door to the bathroom. "Because if so, I think I might-"

Rise rolled her eyes. "Practice? In here? No way, I don't wanna break anything Inoue-san's gonna have to pay for!" She left the whip on the table next to the TV and made her own way for the bathroom door, unbutton the top of her pyjamas as she went. "Besides… if you're still feeling down about the other day, I think I might have something in mind to cheer you up." She said with a wink as she disappeared inside.

* * *

The latest addition to the TV's Statue Grove was a bit of a mixed bag, as far as how Astaire felt about it. On one hand, it depicted him and that odious little cretin, Airashi. On the other hand, it depicted the two of them clashing swords and -call it bias on Astaire's part- Kaoru getting his backside handed to him.

Still, any visage of him was enough to irk Rise and Astaire both, and now they had to look at it every time they went into the TV world. Bloody wonderful.

How industrious of Rise, then, to go about rectifying the matter rightly. "Take _that!"_ She cried as a jar of pickles shattered across the stony Kaoru's face.

Dotted around the ground at varying distances was every kind of miscellaneous foodstuff Rise could get her hands on. Pickles, horseradish, varying things in cans which had since passed their sell-by date, anything which could've made a mess when presented with a hard enough impact.

The end of Rise's whip snapped around the jar of horseradish, clutching it tightly before she twirled around and launched it at Kaoru's head anew. With a spine-tingling _SNAP_ and a timely _KSSSH_ of glass shattering, it seemed she'd hit the mark. Again.

Gods, she was good at this. Really good. It made Astaire feel lucky that he'd stopped her the day before when he had. Any longer and he might've got tossed into the river entirely. "Remarkable aim, Ms. Kujikawa! He'll have a hard time seeing through that lot!" He cheered, happily munching away at the few bento boxes Rise had haphazardly grabbed too. It wasn't the most ideal breakfast, but it was better than nothing at all. With his back to one of the pedestals and his hide on the grass, it made for good, pleasant viewing.

Especially since that mustachioed wastrel couldn't follow them in either. It actually felt rather peaceful.

Panting and wiping her brow, Rise skipped over and plopped herself down beside him, quickly scooping up one of the bento boxes and mauling it like a well-articulated tiger with chopsticks. "Steady on, you might choke."

"I ffaff heff iff!" Rise… sort of replied happily.

"And don't talk with your mouth full either."

Swallow. Satisfied sigh. Begin again. "I can't help it! I haven't felt this pumped in so long! It's great being able to support everyone else in battle, but holy cow, I can fight, too!" She shone with a happiness that could've bested the sun entirely, almost to where Astaire wondered if he should start praising _her_ instead. "Combat support, fighting, dancing, singing, modelling… I'm a real quintuple threat, right?!" She asked, smiling proudly and not caring who knew it.

"And cooking." Astaire added between mouthfuls of sushi. "Lest you forgot."

 _Scrunch scrunch scrunch._ There went Rise's insides. Like her stomach was a heat pack that warmed her heart and brought a giddy little smile to her face. Thankfully, Astaire didn't inquire much further. They simply sat and ate peacefully, basking in the ambience.

No monsters. No moustaches. No Shadows poking and prodding. No freaky combo-monsters trying to skin them alive. No fires to flay their skin from their bones.

Nothing but peaceful silence, layered over a canvas of lush, soft greens and calm greys.

And whatever freaky paint spillage accident had erupted over Kaoru's face, but that was beside the point.

His sleep having been less than restful the night before, Astaire began to feel the peace coo lovingly into his ear. Sweet, sultry, and oh so tempting. It gently put a weight on both of his eyelids, and eased his body to slump against the stone pedestal behind him.

For once, his body _and_ mind were at peace. And thus, his eyes drifted shut behind his frames of blue.

He'd check on Rise again in a while. She'd do well enough without his supervision.

* * *

It was a shame that Naoto didn't carry blanks on hand. There were times when a bloodless version of Russian Roulette could come in handy.

Specifically, at times like these.

"Don't even _think_ of looking at me." Yosuke said right away, tapping out and backing away from the group from the get-go. "Kanji, they both like you, you do it!"

"Ain't he punched you in the noggin once already, Ted? Go on an' take one for the team." Kanji said, eagerly nudging Teddie forward with his shoulder.

A nudge which was returned tenfold as Teddie darted backwards. "B-But that was my Teddie suit! If he ends up ruining my human face, think of how unpopular I'll be!" He faux-moaned, clutching at his cheeks overdramatically.

"We really should be going sooner rather than later. Will someone please do something?" Naoto asked reminding herself to bring the aforementioned blanks the next time this happened.

What was _this_ exactly?

Astaire and Rise, shoulder to shoulder on the ground and both fast asleep, her head tilted onto his shoulder and his head tilted onto the top of hers. She'd snuggled into his arm and curled up her legs, while he stretched out so freely that it looked like he'd never slept before.

The guys hesitated from waking them because it felt like prodding a sleeping bear.

The girls hesitated because it felt like pissing off a twin-tailed, irritable snake armed with a leather whip.

And also because it was kind of adorable.

But the matter remained that they'd arranged to meet after school and go investigate further up the tower. Which was a little difficult with the team's navigator and otherworldly expert grounded like anchors on the seafloor.

Sensing that the cloud of arguments and shifting of duties wasn't going to end any time soon, the first to step forward -albeit with a sigh- was Yukiko. As she drew in closer, the boys ceased arguing amongst themselves. Everything fell quiet, save for the sound of Yukiko's shoes brushing the grass aside.

She knelt down in front of the duo, her knees tight to her chest. She cleared her throat. "Rise-chan? Ast-?"

A black shimmer parted the air as a dagger seemingly materialised in Astaire's hand and pointed itself at Yukiko, wrenching its wielders eyes open to reveal a pointed, vicious glare that was immediately at the ready.

Until it met Yukiko's glare in return.

It felt as though a bitter chill had run down from the tip of the dagger and into the very core of Astaire's bones. Like he'd just walked up, slapped Lord Gwyn and told him his heavenly daughter Gwynevere was a faithless harlot. But worse. Much, much worse. Because Lord Gwyn wasn't here. Yukiko was. And her eyes felt like he'd been perforated by an army's worth of icicles.

He tried to get up. To put some distance between himself and Death wearing a red jumper. Only he didn't seem able to. Something on his left was weighing him down. The same thing his head was resting on, actually. Whatever it was, it was lovely and soft. Smelled rather nice too. Like summer fruits.

Astaire dared to slowly avert his gaze from Yukiko and down to his side.

_Oh._

The colour drained from his face, like he'd just exhaled his soul and it'd drifted up and away. He shifted his shoulder gently, feeling the solid, icy dread within him snowball up as Rise protested, nuzzling in closer and cutely screwing up her face with a sleepy murmur.

_FOR GWYN'S SAKE, REALLY NOW._

Astaire roughly, loudly cleared his throat. And kept clearing it until it looked like Rise was coming to. She let out a yawn, looked up at him, then froze on the spot. For a moment, it looked like she was going red all over again.

Then she met eyes with Yukiko, upon which the red quickly scarpered in favour of a shadow of Astaire-brand 'Exhaled Soul' white as her jaw hung loose.

" _Snrk…_ " Yukiko snorted, her flat-faced glare cracking under the pressure of what she was looking at, curling her lips up and closing her eyes over. She covered her mouth and clutched her stomach as she tried to resist quaking with the giggles. "You two… _Pfft!_ The looks on your faces!" And thus the crack in the dam of stoicism gave way for a deluge of laugh-snort-laughing as Yukiko doubled over, nearly in tears.

The duo shared looks at one another, then quickly broke off and put some distance between themselves as they messily pulled themselves to their respective feet and brushed themselves down. "...Stop that, you look an oaf." Astaire said in the face of Teddie's fluttery-eyed, eyebrow-wiggling expression.

At least Teddie was all he had to deal with. Rise switched between people so quickly it was hard to tell who her excuses were meant for. However, at least one person could be taken out of the equation. The one who had saw fit to address the far messier issue behind their backs. "The heck is going on here?" Yosuke asked, in reference to the new statue featuring Kaoru and Astaire. "And why does that other guy look so familiar? I feel like I've seen him somewhere before…" He asked further, tapping a foot as he tried to remember _where_ he'd seen him. "Nice swords, too." He added.

His attention being drawn to it -or perhaps moreso _away_ from Rise and Astaire- brought everyone else's focus to the statue as well. Thank god, too, because Rise was just about going hoarse with all the excuse making. "That's the guy I told you about yesterday. The one who knew Astaire-kun's first name."

"He dresses like a prick." Kanji pointed out. Never did like those low-ass V-neck shirts. Only person who wore them worse was Yosuke.

"Is he an idol too, Rise-chan?" Teddie inquired.

"He's a creepy little jerk who's getting more than he bargained for." Rise snapped back.

Perhaps it was just wishful thinking, but Astaire swore she almost sounded a little pleased at that.

"Google him when we get back, Ted, we've got more important things to do right now." Yu said brusquely, walking off for the gate into TV-Lordran before anything else could keep them back. "Time to go see what's left of that forest from last time."

He walked off through the trees with a confident stride. At least, until he realised they were short one pair of footsteps.

"Oh, right. Chie, could you... carry Yukiko until she's done laughing?" He asked sheepishly as Yukiko's howls echoed through the leaves and branches. With any luck, she might've wound up stopping some time the following week.

* * *

It only struck Yu upon teleporting to the top of Sen's Fortress that they hadn't exactly found a proper way out of the forest last time. No exit to immediately jump to meant they'd have to go walking through the entire dark, harrowing nightmare of monsters and phantoms all over again. A thought not only detested by he, but practically everyone else.

That was, until they got a good look at what their handiwork had wrought.

Because Darkroot Garden was _gone._

Or at least, as gone as a forest could get. Where once the lush, overgrown plant life had thrived alongside all the horrible beings that lived inside it, only sizable piles of ash remained. A few charred, fallen tree trunks were scattered to and fro, but they were few and far between. Everything else looked as though it had disintegrated entirely.

"Well that sure simplifies things." Chie chirped, eyes wide. "Too bad it's not windy in here or this could all have been cleaned up. We could've had it even easier than we do now!"

As nice as that sounded, one problem still remained. "But we still don't know _where_ exactly we're going." Yukiko rightfully pointed out. "We can't even retrace our steps properly without all the plant life to guide us. How are we ever going to find our way through here?"

As she spoke, a voice from within the piles of ash and darkness answered, "Thou art a shameless band, to return whence thou mindless havoc defiled."

Right on time, a pair of glowing eyes lit up the darkness beyond the Investigation Team, an icy blue that caught the light as it began to prowl closer towards the light of Sen's Fortress.

Immediately, everyone was on high alert, with the boys - sans Astaire, who realised his Claymore was somewhere in the wreckage and his Greathammer at Firelink- forcing their way to the frontline and preparing to fend off whatever archaic-tongued monstrosity had crawled out of a forest that _shouldn't_ have had any signs of life in it. As the voice's owner drew closer, it became evident that whatever this thing was, it was _big._ Much bigger than the size and closeness of its eyes might have suggested.

As a single massive, furred paw stepped into the light, a gasp from behind perked up everyone's ears.

"Oh, Gods! Is that truly you, Ms. Alvina?!" Astaire asked, squirming his way to the frontlines as the beast drew itself further into the light.

The one Astaire called 'Alvina' was a massive, _massive_ feline creature, prowling low to the ground and speaking in human tongues through a far-too-wide jaw lined with far-too-sharp teeth. Her face made up surprisingly little of her actual body, seemingly squashed forward in such a way that immediately made her look suspicious. Well, more suspicious than a giant talking cat generally was.

Almost as suspicious as the armour-plated weirdo who talked to it like it was no big deal. Especially when he got on his knees and starting _kowtowing_ to it. "Please allow me to apologise on the behalf of my companions! They were unaware of the penalty incurred by defiling the forest, truly! They wouldn't have set it alight otherwise!"

"Dude, are you seriously talking to a giant ca- _SHIT!"_ Kanji ducked out of the way of a pebble tossed for his head, thrown by a very manic looking Astaire. He was about to call him out on it when he'd suddenly dashed over and wrapped his arm around his neck, pulling his head in close to his own.

"That's no _giant cat_ you ingrate!" He whispered as loudly as someone in a wild panic could. "That's Alvina of the Darkroot Wood! The leader of those phantom hunters we encountered last time!"

"She is?!" Kanji balked, looking over Astaire's shoulder and locking eyes with Alvina as she narrowed hers at him. An act which Kanji mirrored as he shouldered his way past Astaire entirely. "The hell do you get off sendin' your weirdo ghost brigade after us, ya fleabit-"

Before he could walk forward any further and square up to the oversized feline, Kanji was swept off his feet entirely as Astaire lunged for the back of his collar and wrenched him back, clamping both his shoulders firmly as he shook the hell out of him ."Are you _trying_ to get us all killed, you simpleton?! Do you not understand the situation we're in?! We're outnumbered nine to _infinity!_ "

"Spare thy comrades thine ire, Sunlight Warrior." Alvina decided to step in, putting a paw forward as she drew closer and into the light of the fortress. "The Darkroot Wood long stood defiled afore thy and thine ilk did ignite it." She purred, casting a wary eye around the rest of the Investigation Team. "Indeed, thine efforts hath cleansed the foul affliction from this demesne. Mine kinsmen shall stay their hands for now."

Oh, Gods be praised. Were he not in good company, Astaire swore the relief alone would've brought him to his knees. No Sif, no hunters, no monsters? Brilliant! It was like a dream come true. Or a nightmare, given how friendly the remains of the forest looked.

"You really lived in this forest, Nice Cat Lady?" Teddie asked, peeped around Alvina and squinting into the darkness. "Does that mean you could show us how to get further up the tower? Pretty please?" He bunched his hands together and fluttered his lengthy eyelashes, giving Alvina his most potent Teddie bear eyes.

"Insolence! How dare thee attempt to siphon yet more mercy from me, after I hath spared thine lives?!" Alvina's tail rose up behind her as she rose to her full, non-prowling height. She bore her long line of thin, pointed teeth, as Naoto, Kanji and Yosuke quickly rose their weapons in defence. "Soon! Soon thou shalt witness the full might of the… the…" No sooner had Alvina's aggression flared, something seemed to step in and snuff it back out again.

Something here meaning 'Yu Narukami'. Stroking Alvina's fur with a bewitched look on his face.

"Um… Yu-kun?" Yukiko tried calling out to him, but she was fighting a losing battle. A wide, goofy grin stretched across Yu's face as he ran his fingers around Alvina's neck, stroking her all the more intently.

"Oooh… My, how…" Alvina tried to say, only to shut her eyes and purr lovingly, leaning into Yu's magic fingers and dropping her tail to the ground. Her purrs echoed around the fortress' stony walls, loudly enough that everyone could feel it rumbling their insides about.

Astaire could only watch in a muddled mix of amazement and confusion. "I've… never seen this side of you before, Ms. Alvina." He muttered as everyone relaxed and put their weapons away.

The addition of a familiar voice froze Alvina on the spot. Her eyes shot open. She looked towards Astaire, then to Yu, then back to everyone else. She pounced back faster than anyone could see, pawing at the fur surrounding her head to flatten it back down after Yu's vicious assault. She turned around to face the forest and, for a while, simply remained silent.

It took her a full minute to finally pipe up again.

"...Very well. Follow me."

* * *

How Alvina knew where she was going was anyone's guess, because their surroundings seemed to repeat indefinitely, no matter which way they turned. Piles of ash here, charred trunks there, the occasional melted weapon burning an outline for itself into the ground, everything but a solid path forward. Thus it was left to Alvina to forge one.

Without much else to distract them, the conversation turned to other topics. "Errant fools, all of you." Alvina began, peering peerlessly through the pitch black ahead of her. "To have come hither with nary a plan amongst you beyond 'ascend further up'. I should task my hunters with excavating your graves early." Her voice rumbled, low and serious.

Despite her rampant negativity, Alvina kept leading the way. But the cause of her negativity was intriguing. Telling. "You speak as though you know what we're about to come up against." Naoto pointed out, flicking open her notebook pre-emptively. "Would that be the case?"

Alvina slowed to allow her beady eyes to sharply redirect to Naoto's side. "Surely thou jest. Hast thou not felt it by now?" The blank looks she got as her gaze passed around everyone else spoke a thousand words. She purred out a sigh. "One cannot say thou'rt not fitting company for one another, united in thine soft-headedness."

"By all means, don't keep us in suspense. If you know something we don't, we'd be incredibly grateful for the help." Yu said politely, already reaching out his hand in case of a rejection.

With a swish of her tail and a low purr, Alvina hopped atop one of the larger ashen trunks, strolling gracefully along the top of it as she began. "It lingers in the air, this sensation. It pervades across thy entirety, as though one were submerging thyself in a pool of water."

Indeed, now that she mentioned it, Astaire realised that something had been bothering him during the entire walk. Only once she'd brought it to light did he realise what it was.

His Zweihander was still lodged in a tree. Not far from it, the Demon's Great Hammer his Shadow had drawn, and which he himself hadn't the strength to recover. His claymore was presumably lying in a melted mess somewhere among the ash right now.

Cripes, he was unarmed! Seeking to remedy the situation forthwith, he began searching in his coat for another weapon.

In his ear, Alvina continued. "Thou'rt walking through an amalgamation. A figurative marriage betwixt one world and another, as began far below these woods. Thusly, the further thou strayest from the source…"

Astaire's hand brushed by the leather whip he'd let Rise borrow earlier, and he began to wonder. She'd likely used it enough to have imparted some fragment of her soul upon it by now. Having felt Yosuke and Kaoru's prior, he couldn't help but wonder what hers would feel like by comparison.

...This was purely for curiosity's sake. Nothing more. He wouldn't think anything more of having her soul pulsating between his fingers. Stay calm. It was no major issue. With that in mind, Astaire retrieved the weapon wholly.

"...the more thou shalt find that the delicate-held balance shall begin to… waver. Such so that it may begin to affect thee strangely. Perhaps, even…"

The whip unfurled towards the ground, but as the gentle caress of the heat from Rise's soul bled through his fingers, something more noteworthy garnered Astaire's attention. The whip's end dragged behind him as he walked, as might be expected.

However, the longer he walked, the higher the tip began to lift from the ground. Like a mighty wind was forcing it back, only nothing around him existed to blow.

"...such anomalies may begin to deform the world around thee, as well."

Sure enough, the whip wasn't alone. Rise's twintails began to lift to a horizontal angle. Yukiko's hair began to straighten behind her. Kanji's blazer tried to fall from his back before he hastily stuffed his arms inside. Yosuke's headphones lifted from his shoulders before he caught them and slid them over his ears.

It was, Yu noticed, a very similar event to what had transpired in the Faux-Abyss not too long ago.

"So… So the further we move up the tower, the more this whole place is gonna get bent outta shape?!" Chie accurately summed up as her glasses began to dig a little deeper against her nose. "I mean… what the hell's even happening _now?!_ We're not even into the next area and everything's already getting messed up!"

Above them, Alvina dropped from her makeshift walkway, kicking up ash as she landed. "Alas, I believe thou may guess at this stage, but little more. Not even one such as I is all-knowing in regards to such affairs."

Stuffing his necklace into his shirt to be sure it didn't fly off, Kanji grumbled under his breath. "Know a frickin' lot about everythin' else, though."

"Hush, child!" Alvina snapped, narrowing her eyes at the darkness ahead. Her vision pierced through the shade, revealing to her a border where the mountains of ash and char began to fade, and where no fallen chunks of charcoal lay. "Your destination approacheth. We must make haste."

After what seemed like endless wading through a never-ending sea of ash, a faint, glowing light began to push and scrape away the darkness that surrounded everyone. The ground slowly lost any traces of white, instead giving way to cracked, dried up dirt, bereft of grass. It reminded Rise of spending sunny days outside during summer, actually. But that didn't exactly explain why it was happening _here_ of all places. The TV World didn't care much for the changing of seasons, and given the look of it, she couldn't imagine the original Darkroot Garden in Lordran caring much either.

The parched dirt announced the lead up to the large set of double doors before them. Much like the ones at the top of Sen's Fortress, they was intimidatingly large, and bore a pulsating orb of light in the center. Unfortunately, only one characteristic hadn't carried over.

"For shit's sake, _really?!_ " Kanji bellowed angrily at the sky. "Who the hell expects anyone to move doors made outta solid frickin' rock?!"

"Actually..." Naoto said, giving one door an analytical rap with her knuckles as she closely eyed it up. "This appears to have been formed entirely out of obsidian. Therefore, it'd be more accurate to class it as _volcanic glass_ than rock."

"Like that makes it any better! I'd class it as _really damn heavy_ either way!" Yosuke added, his arms already reflexively turning to noodles before he'd even thought of pushing the door open.

From the sidelines, Alvina gave a thoughtful purr as she sat and gazed up at the orb of light. "An oppressive barrier, true. 'Tis as though someone wished to waylay thine efforts in proceeding forward, one would think." She said knowingly.

Astaire offered her a glance and narrowed his eyes. There was something she wasn't telling them. That much he knew for certain. Given he hadn't ever aligned himself with the Forest Hunters in the past, he doubted he'd be the one to pry the answers from her, either.

"Jeez, this is gonna suck." Kanji sighed, stretching his arms and loosening up his shoulders as he walked up to the door. He stopped to glance behind him at their friendly neighbourhood strongman. "Yo, we openin' this thing or what?"

Well, if Alvina wasn't going to fill them in, all that left was to find the answers themselves. "Certainly. Shall we both accost the one door this time?"

"Call me crazy, but I don't think you two alone are gonna cut it." Rise added, giving one door a weak push. Not a bit of give in it at all. "...Hint hint." She glared pointedly at Yosuke and Teddie, who both quickly scrambled to join their two fellow doormen, right as Yu cooly walked up to bring the total to five.

The boys placed their hands against the solid obsidian, then paused at the exact same time. "Hey… anyone else feelin' a bit stuffy all of a sudden?" Kanji started, his brow suddenly slicked with sweat. Even after wiping at it with his blazer sleeve, he remained drenched.

"You're probably just not used to wearing your blazer like that, Kanji-kun!" Teddie pointed out cheerily. But as he turned his attention back to the door, his face fell as he hummed in thought, spreading his fingers out on the obsidian's smooth, glasslike surface. "Although… this door _does_ feel kinda warm, doesn't it?"

"Well obsidian _is_ made from cooled-down lava." Yu rightly said, beginning to feel the heat in his palm just as strongly. "Perhaps a little of the heat got left over."

Which raised another question, actually. "Alvina-san, why is there even a door made of obsidian here anyway? We didn't see much lava either time we came here. Or _any_ , for that matter." Yukiko asked, drawing Alvina's gaze away from the light orb above.

She gave a toothy grin in response. "My, my, my. A vast stretch of ambiguity lies before thee, it seems. Thou might even be described as ' _unprepared'_ by some." She purred. "It seems a tad unwise to abandon all sense for a dash into the unknown. Thou may find anything and everything on the other side of this door."

Ignoring Alvina's musings, the boys put their shoulders to the door and heaved. Their heels dug into -and kicked up- the dirt below them as the obsidian refused to move. The orb of light didn't react either, far from shattering into shards as before.

"No good? Fancy that." Alvina grinned wider. "It seems thy efforts were for naught. Mayhaps thou should-"

"Would you shut the hell up already?!" Kanji bellowed as he crushed his Arcana card against the door, whereupon Takeji-Zaiten roared into being above him and mirrored his pose, throwing all of its considerable strength into the door. "If you know somethin' we don't, then frickin' tell us!"

All eyes not on the door were redirected towards Alvina. She remained entranced by the orb of light above the boys' heads, in particular, the small imperfection which was beginning to blossom on its surface. It seemed to be giving way after all.

Her expression remained neutral as she swished her tail back and forth. "I am no more aware than thee, rest assured." She began, strolling over to address the girls directly. "Though I shall reiterate thine foolhardiness. Hast none of thou taken into account what perils lie ahead?"

Overhead, the orb of light's small crack began to expand.

"Don't worry! We can take whatever this weirdo world can throw at us, no sweat!" Chie assured her, pounding a fist into her hand with a confident smile.

"That answers my question not." Alvina bit back sharply. Her words shook the smile from Chie's face as she glanced between Yukiko, Rise and Naoto for reassurance. "As I thought. How children as blind as thee may see an inch afront their noses is truly perplexing."

The crack wrapped around the orb's equator. The core began to rumble.

"Thou cannot prepare for that which is not understood. And to be sure, thou understandeth little." Alvina pawed forward, drawing closer to the girls, eyes like daggers. "Hast thou not considered that thine actions are not of the wisest course? That mayhaps this world stands as it does with reason? Thine interfering with what thou fails to understand could well be your ultimate undoing."

Sick of being lectured by a cat of all things, Rise took an equal step forward, matching Alvina's glare and clashing like one would with swords. "How do you expect us to understand what we're getting into before we even get into it?! And if all this weird stuff is going on, how do you expect us to just sit back and let it all happen?!" She cried, her passion overflowing to where even Alvina raised her brow in response. "Why are you acting like what we're doing is a bad thing?!"

At last, the orb of light shattered into shards. With its destruction, the doors began to rumble open.

Alvina turned her attention to the boys, which naturally redirected Rise's focus as well. From the looks of things, she had her sights trained on Astaire's back.

"Thine is simply a path I have oft seen trodden. I expect thine destinations shall align as well."

"We got it! We got it!" Teddie cheered brightly as the doors heaved open, teasing everyone's first glance at their latest challenge. "Now all we have to do is rush on through to the end and-!"

Teddie fell short as the first thin sliver of light burst through the cracks in the doors. But at least he wasn't the only one. Yu, Yosuke, Kanji and Astaire all joined him in immediately bolting backwards, suddenly engorged in a storm of coughing, spluttering and near-vomitous retching.

From within the obsidian double doors billowed out a stench which exceeded all description. It poured out like a deluge of filth which had no end, flooding both the immediate area and the lungs of everyone present. Everyone couldn't help but fall to their knees helplessly. Their eyes watered, their throats burned and writhed. Every nerve in every part of everyone's body screamed in unified horror at the unbridled assault on their senses.

The smell was utterly foul. Every noxious odour everyone had ever experienced before this moment couldn't ever hope compare.

Everyone excluding Astaire, that is.

The stench was familiar. It wasn't _exactly_ the same as the lingering memory which haunted his nostrils, but the similarity was undeniable. It was a smell he'd experienced in a part of the world which had made his stomach turn for more than one reason.

Blighttown.

The main difference, however, was that the stench was accompanied by an unfathomable heat. Like someone had filled a pot with every kind of human waste and then set it to boil for a week. It certainly smelt like Blighttown, that much was certain, but something else was there too.

As everyone else lay grounded, unfamiliar with the unforgiving plague that seeped into their every orifice, Astaire stood up and gradually made his way to the door. The heat slicked him with sweat under his armour. The odour seemed worse with every breath. But he had to see. He had to know what they were up against. He strained his eyes against the bright light from within the doors and took his first good look at their next gauntlet.

…

…

Well, at least it wasn't Blighttown.

It was just far, _far_ worse.

"My, my. It appears my obligation to thee is fulfilled." Alvina said calmly, as though ignorant of the miasma which surrounded everyone else. With a flick of her tail, she turned on the spot and began prowling back into the ashen forest.

"Best of luck, Chosen Undead. To thou and thine both." She said with a sarcastic smile as she disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

Astaire couldn't wrap his head around it.

It was Blighttown. The stench and the precarious, worryingly rickety wooden structures forging their path forward confirmed as much.

But it also _wasn't_ Blighttown. The unending tides of lava, soaring through the air overhead as owed to the gravitational anomaly affecting everyone, confirmed as much as well. In fact, looking at the strone bases for the wooden platforms, hewn and stitched together from what looked like the remains of stone buildings, pillars and staircases, reminded him more of Lost Izalith than anywhere else.

Neither were especially welcome on their own. Mash the two of them together into a bastard abomination and Astaire almost wished they'd left the bloody door closed for good.

Lost Blightzilith. That's what lay before them. As close to Hell as any Undead or human might find.

It was a horrific enough sight that it froze both Astaire and the Investigation Team in their respective tracks. They simply stood at the door, blasted with the stream of immense heat and choking stench, gazing blankly at the trials to follow.

"Um… this is normal, right? You've been through this before, haven't you Astaire-kun?" Rise asked, giving Astaire's armoured shoulder a light tap. She felt her heart surge to her heels as he shook his head, eyes locked on the flow of lava overhead. "Oh… You haven't. Right." She mumbled quietly.

"I've been through Blighttown and Lost Izalith before. Never an amalgamation of the two." Astaire murmured back.

She didn't sound hopeful. Not that anyone else felt hopeful either. "Are we seriously going to try and cross over some matchstick-and-glue-ass bridge in the middle of all this frickin' lava?" Kanji said, his eyes wide. He hadn't asked anyone in particular, but it was clearly Yu's call to decide.

Yu didn't answer. Not immediately, anyway. His silence didn't help to dull everyone's concerns, either. But internally, his mind worked at a mile a minute. They _needed_ to go further up the tower. There was no other way to go if they didn't. But god, if this wasn't a thousand times worse than a burning forest.

"...Give me a minute." Yu finally said, his eyes flitting to the Save Point off to the side of the door. He put his fingers to his chin and strolled over to the light in thought. He needed an idea. Even the slightest hint of everyone going in and getting out alright would do it. Lava-based death was a quick one. It didn't leave much hope for licking one's wounds afterwards, at any rate. It was death or life, and nothing in between.

...Wait a minute.

The light swirling around Yu's feet got his thoughts swirling in turn.

He turned on a heel, catching Astaire's gaze as he looked up from Rise's concerned expression at his side. "Have you a plan, Mr. Narukami?"

"Sorta. But I don't think you're going to like it."


	24. Trial By Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A potent sting, a mutated menace, and an unseen observer.

The first few steps into Lost Blightzilith were marked with the sounds of creaking wood underfoot and lungfuls of stiflingly hot, rancid air. How exactly precariously suspended wooden platforms were maintaining any kind of structural stability when surrounding by horizontally-flowing streams of lava, Astaire could hardly imagine.

He'd have turned and asked what everyone else thought about the puzzling phenomenon, were it not for two very prudent problems. The first of which being that he was a white phantom, and his vocal cords were busy taking a Soapstone-induced nap several hundred metres behind him.

The second problem was that he was entirely on his own.

Well, that made sense, didn't it? It was him, after all. Nothing he hadn't done before, right? He trudged through destitute hovels like this all the time! Plus, if the worst came to pass, his death wouldn't even be permanent! Yes yes, he couldn't fault Mr. Narukami's judgement. It was a capital idea to have. Yes indeed.

It didn't stop his hands shaking, though. Nor his eyes from sweeping, nor his breath from hitching with every new noise outside his field of vision.

The problem with traversing another world with companions, Astaire found, was that it made one all the more aware of their absence. And theirs weighed on him like a Titanite Demon knelt upon his shoulders.

A high-pitched buzzing shook Astaire's worries aside. A horde of giant, bloated mosquitoes with worryingly inflated abdomens flew in, encircling him from above, their myriad limbs squirming like fingers on the sizable hand of death beckoning him forth to his demise.

Hah, what nonsense. Mosquitos weren't a worry. As the filthy, wriggling insects descended with killing intent, Astaire reached for his latest armament - the lengthy, twisted Demon's Spear - and made to jab upwards, ignoring the poison they spat and-

The torrent of fire from above bit and scratched at his phantom flesh. His spear's path diverged as his body instinctively drove itself away from the intense heat, shielding its face in desperation.

Alright, the mosquitos were a worry. Fire-breathing hordes of mosquitoes were _certainly_ a worry. Evidently the nightmarish fusions didn't simply extend to the environment alone. Astaire took a mental note as he backed off and rubbed the pain from his face, bearing his teeth through it all. Time for another-

_Ksssh~_

The sound of something impacting his ethereal form. Something which he could feel pierce the back of his thigh. It was thin, almost to the point of not being noticeable at all.

' _Oh Gods.'_ Astaire's phantom mouthed silently.

He twisted around quickly, just in time to catch the silhouette of an emaciated Undead adorned with the splintered remains of a barrel as armour. Even behind a mottled, wooden mask, Astaire could see them sniggering, their shoulders and chest jittering excitedly. He wasn't long of guessing why. The blowpipe in their mottled hands gave it all away.

Toxic. Far worse than any normal poison. One could _bathe_ in poison for hours and still be better off than a man toxified for a minute.

Into the bottomless box. Forget the mosquitoes for now. Forget the Blowdart Sniper and their incessant sniggering. He needed moss. Moss could take the toxic away. One mouthful of it and he'd be fine. He just needed to-

Pain.

It wasn't Toxic.

PAIN.

It was far, far worse.

 **PAIN.** _**PAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH** _

It was like the magma had seeped under his skin and into his veins. Like it had spewed into his heart and filled every chamber, burning and bubbling and blistering everything it touched. It was like he'd swallowed Hell itself and asked for seconds.

For once, Astaire was thankful he couldn't vocalise as a phantom. Hearing his own screams would've just made it worse.

His spear dropped to the ground, as did he. However violent his spasms, however strained his breaths, however wide his jaw stretched open in some desperate attempt to portray how _nightmarish_ this feeling was, it wasn't enough. It felt like something inside him was eviscerating his insides and trying to pierce a hole in his _everything_ to get out.

After minutes which felt like days, the pain reached a crescendo.

Astaire's Phantom let out one more silent scream before he began to drift away on the breeze, his blank eyes rolled back into his head. The pain took all sane thoughts and turned them into indecipherable, foggy nothingness.

One particle at a time, Astaire let himself be taken away.

* * *

Five times.

_Five freaking times._

As if asking him to die for any of them _once_ wasn't bad enough to begin with.

Senpai hadn't been joking when he said she wouldn't like it. Because at that moment, Rise felt like walking up and twisting his head around backwards. It was only his insisting that he had something to do at the tower's entrance which saved him. But once he got back? Ooooh, he was in for it. He was gonna be lucky to not be picking the teeth out of his throat.

She sat beside Astaire's body, whose back had been settled against one of the mighty stone walls neighbouring the obsidian doors. His face was still. His chest neither rose nor fell. It almost looked like he'd died already.

No, no, stop it. Stop thinking that. He wasn't dead. _Couldn't_ be dead. Not forever, anyway. The fog gate was proof enough of that anyway.

And true, it still stood. The moment Astaire's Phantom had crossed the breach between the forest and Lost Blightzilith, the fog wall had gone up in a heartbeat, allowing nobody else through. The only time it fell was when his phantom wound up dead. Which he had. Five times by now.

Everyone else bided their time waiting for Yu to get back. Chie and Kanji practiced their kicks and blocking respectively. Naoto and Yukiko were poring over the contents of that ever-present notebook of hers, talking quietly to one another, and occasionally exchanging concerned looks. That just left Yosuke and Teddie, who'd taken up sweating like it was an olympic sport as they lay complaining on the ground. "Dude, seriously… If this stupid fog isn't gonna let us through, the least it could do is turn on the AC a little…" Yosuke complained in particular.

Looking between them all, Rise didn't even need Kouzeon's scanning to tell how they were feeling. Mostly because she felt the exact same way.

This world was as close to Astaire's as they could get, and it was currently beating him black and blue. It didn't give anyone much more hope.

She looked down at him again. Still motionless. Still struggling against conditions far too unfair to even consider.

Rise glimpsed over her shoulder. Nobody was watching, right? She glimpsed again. Yeah, they definitely weren't.

Slowly, carefully, she wriggled her fingers under Astaire's left palm, using her other free hand to clasp his fingers over hers. Kind of a useless thing to do, probably. He likely couldn't even feel it. But imagining that he could made Rise feel that little bit better. "Don't give up. I know you can do it." She whispered to him, giving his hand a squeeze.

Her heart threatened to stop entirely when his body squeezed back.

She scuttled back on her heels after ripping her hand from his, eyes wide. He definitely hadn't been breathing, and if he hadn't been breathing, he couldn't have done that. That wasn't normal. That _really_ wasn't normal.

"Oh shit! Everyone, heads up!" Kanji called out, pointing to the fog wall as it began to thin and disappear.

As the last of the fog left, Astaire's body rocketed back to life. He sprung off the wall and wound up crashing a shoulder into the ground, clutching his arms and rolling around as if he'd been set on fire. He sucked in air through his painfully clenched teeth and tried to quell the scream he wanted to let out. He only half-succeeded as a restrained whine pathetically rose from him. When the worst of his flailing ceased, he settled for a thousand-yard stare and tried to settle his breathing.

It was worse than the other times. Far, _far_ worse.

"Shit, dude, are you alright?!" Kanji asked as he dropped to one knee and rolled Astaire onto his back. "Don' worry, 's'all good now. Ain't nobody gonna hurt ya out here." He assured him.

Yet Naoto could tell just from looking at him. It wasn't any of them he was concerned about. His hands and arms spasmed, despite his best efforts to stop them. His jugular bulged painfully out of his neck. He tried to straighten his leg, but the way it seemed to resist his commands suggested it wasn't easy. "Did you… see what attacked you this time?" She asked carefully.

Quivering lips didn't make answering easy. "P-P-Poison." Astaire finally said. "Bad. F-From behind." He spat out as he sat himself upright.

Everyone was at a loss for words.

They imagined, or at best, hoped, that Yu had only offered this plan -and by extension, Astaire had agreed to it- because of how they understood White Phantoms to work, based on Astaire's explanation via charades a few days prior. Anything someone did to his body would be mirrored by his phantom, but it didn't work the other way around.

Or rather, it wasn't supposed to. But that kind of flew in the face of what they were witnessing right that very moment. True, he didn't _actually_ seem to be poisoned, but entirely healthy people didn't flail about in a pained daze on the ground.

Yosuke's gaze was drawn to the open doors exuding the fierce heat and stinking miasma, and the glimpses of wood and magma beyond. "Dunno about the rest of you guys, but… I'm starting to think this might be a bad idea."

"Me too." Teddie said, looking surprisingly serious for once. "If whatever's in there is enough to kick Stairry-kun's butt…" He trailed off. If whatever was in there could kill the guy who took a sword through the gut, and kill him _five more times_ on top of that, it didn't say much for the rest of them. As tough as they were, they weren't invincible.

Doubt began to sink in deeply. Sure, Astaire didn't have a Persona. He didn't have anyone _with_ a Persona helping or healing him, nor did he have the advantage that numbers gave him. Looking at it that way, it actually appeared to improve the chances of success significantly if they all went in as one.

But that diabolical… _something_ that was poisonous enough for even Astaire's body to feel it, that was worrying. If that was what it did to him, what would it do to anyone else? Would there even be time to help them if someone _did_ get stuck with it? _Could_ they even help them? What if this poison wasn't one even their Personas could cure?

Capable or otherwise, together or apart, the thought made hesitation inevitable.

" _No!_ Give me that!" Rise suddenly barked. Having stabilised himself on both feet, Astaire now found himself staggering back as Rise furiously strode towards him, her eyes ablaze and her face screwed into a visage of purest anger. "I'm _not_ going to let you keep doing this to yourself! Now hand it over!" She cried, clawing desperately up at the white soapstone that Astaire held above his head indignantly.

But the height difference worked against her, as did Astaire's continued backpedalling. "I told you, I'm f-fine." He said as calmly as a man with a still-inflamed jugular could. "Mr. Narukami's plan remains sound. Out of all of us, I'm the only one who-"

" _I don't care what Senpai said!"_ Rise screamed.

The following pause allowed her voice to echo through the trees as everyone stood in a stunned daze. Out of anyone in the team, nobody would've placed their bets on _Rise_ being the first to say something like that.

Still she continued. "I can't just sit here and watch you get killed over and over again! Not you nor anyone else! I _order_ you to give me that soapstone!" But she could see it in his bespectacled eyes. Order or no order, he was adamant about giving it another go. His hand remained aloft.

Rrrgh. Stupid knightly idiot. Taking advantage of his hand being out of reach, Rise's own slipped inside his coat and into the bottomless box. Before he could oppose and backpedal faster, she'd retrieved the leather whip from earlier and lit the air with a loud _SNAP._ "You're gonna give that thing to me, or I'm gonna _make_ you give it to me!"

"Who's giving what to who now?" Yu casually asked, stepping off the Save Point and brushing the light from his sleeves.

The 'S' in Senpai had barely passed Kanji and Naoto's lips before- _"YOU."_ -ripped apart the atmosphere like a hungry tiger.

Yu had rarely seen this side of Rise. Not angry, no. Angry wasn't strong enough. _Volcanic_ seemed more fitting. But he'd seen it enough times to know he never wanted to see it again. Much less with a leather whip in her hands. The only thing stopping him from turning tail and bolting back through the Save Point was Astaire stepping forward and whisking Rise over his shoulder.

"Put me down, you moron!" She screeched, pounding her fists off his back and flailing her legs at his front, calling him every name of the day and then some. Something in the middle about _I'll whip him into ribbons_ which got lost in the stream of everything else.

"There'll be plenty of time for that later." Astaire assured her legs.

" _No there won't."_ Yu added quickly.

Yukiko quickly closed the distance between them. "It sounds like trouble in there."

"Big trouble." Chie added from behind her, biting her lip as she gave the doors another glance. "Like, hit-once-and-you're-done trouble."

The rest of the team quickly congregated around Yu, save for Rise, who Astaire kept well out of arm's (and whip's) length. "Don't worry Chie-chan, it's all gonna be gravy now that Sensei's here!" Teddie beamed as he leaned in excitedly. "So what's the plan, Sensei?"

"Easy." Yu said with a smile. He turned around and brought his sword to one hand, reaching into the air with the other. From above, an unfamiliar arcana card twirled down to meet him.

Well, unfamiliar to _some_ present anyway. Naoto and Kanji's eyebrows rose at the sight of it, as did one of Astaire's. Because as often as he'd seen Yu switch arcana cards in battle, he struggled to remember him using _his._

Lust arcana in hand, Yu stopped just before entering the door. "Stick close."

* * *

Astaire's repeated attempts to forge a path through Blightzilith hadn't been as fruitful as he'd hoped. Several emaciated hollows brandishing makeshift wooden weapons lay dead here and there, blending in with the mounds of wooden viscera which littered the pathway, but they hadn't been his biggest concern. Aside from fire-spitting mosquitos and the purest agony he'd known, demons had been his downfall more times than not, and had made killing much else nigh impossible.

The gigantic proportions of the Taurus Demon strained the wood underfoot as it stomped towards the team, hammer raised, roaring as the lava silhouetted its gnarled, twisted horns from above.

Kanji had been brushed aside by its first strike and launched into a mound of wooden barrels. Everyone else was completely open. Open, but not fearful, the demon failed to notice. Ignorant of the situation, the hammer rushed towards the ground.

" _Sir Lancelot, parry!"_

The hammer's momentum reversed immediately, throwing the Taurus Demon off balance as the thick shield of red light dissipated from around Yu and his friends. Behind him, the illusory image of Sir Lancelot -a Persona clad in thick red armour adorned with white streaks- lowered his shield and raised his sword in turn. "It's vulnerable!" Yu called out. "Time for an all-out attack!"

The speed at which Yu and Sir Lancelot had been dispatching foes was staggering. The Persona moved like none anyone on the team had seen before. For one, it hadn't disappeared since Yu had first summoned him, which was odd enough. Odder still was the techniques it used. It parried attacks and left enemies wide open to assault. It was capable of clashing swords with the hollows which lingered around, shortly before skewering them cleanly.

He moved, Rise noted, much like Astaire did, on occasion.

The Taurus Demon let out a cry as it splayed out, finally dead. "Don't let your guard down, there's still something coming!" Yu shouted as he and Sir Lancelot raised their weapons in unison. "What do you think it is, Astaire-san?!"

"Basilisks! Creatures that will try to engorge you in petrifying mist!" Astaire shouted back, readying his spear from the backline. True enough, three lizard-like creatures scuttled towards them, quadrupedal feet like that of a chicken and what appeared to be a pair of large, bulbous orange eyes set in front. "Luckily my phantom passed them by before they could get me properly, but be careful all the sa-!"

It occurred to Astaire only after the Basilisks opened their mouths that he hadn't actually _confirmed_ that it was fog they spat.

It wasn't fog. It was solid magma.

The gravitational anomaly that plagued everyone in the forest still applied. Rise's pigtails hung horizontally. Yosuke had to wrap his headphones around the front of his neck to keep them safe. And more importantly, it turned streams of magma into beams of solid, merciless fury that flew as straight as an arrow.

Everyone swore and rolled out of the way as best they could. Only some were faster than others. _"AAAGH, SHIT! FUCK! MY ARM!"_ Kanji wailed in white-hot agony, crashing unceremoniously into the ground and propping his arm into the air. The magma had, thankfully, only grazed him. But magma was magma. It was painful at the best of times. Such was the case here.

"No, Kanji!" Yu felt the lingering fear from earlier rise up again. The fear of possibly losing someone. "Yosuke, Chie, circle around those things! The gravity only works on way in here, they can't fire behind themselves!" He astutely assessed. "Yukiko, get him healed, quick!"

"R-Right!" Yukiko nodded, ducking behind the cover Teddie and Kamui-Moshiri provided them and summoning her own Persona forthwith. One Diarahan was all it'd take. No panic. Take it easy. There was nothing to-

Kanji bit his lip as he tried holding back his screams, rolling on his side as tears welled in his eyes. Just like Astaire had done. Yukiko watched as the bite the magma had taken from Kanji's arm began to heal. _Began._ Slowly. Continued carefully too.

Alarm bells immediately began ringing in Yukiko's head. This was supposed to be an instant heal. Immediate. No waiting and nothing slow about it. But it didn't explain what she was seeing.

Judging from past events, she could make only one conclusion.

"How is he?" Naoto asked as she came to Yukiko's side, the Basilisks' corpses getting punted into next week by Chie making safe her walk over. She tried not to sound worried, but it only made her sound moreso.

But her thoughts echoed everyone else's. As Kanji's wound closed over, he opened his eyes to find every one of his friends surrounding him and watching on eagerly. "I… I'm not sure, but…" Yukiko began to his left. "...I think something's wrong with my healing magic. I don't think it's as good as it was before."

"Almost like it's getting worse the higher up we go?" Teddie offered. Yukiko eyed him in surprise. "Hey, it's been happening to me, too! I thought healing was supposed to make you feel better, but recently it's come with a side-order of _ouch_ to boot!"

The reality of how grave their situation was took a second or two to really sink in. Their healing magic was weakening. Sure, they had healing items which Yu had picked up during the events of the year prior, but they were only so effective, and there were only so many of them. That the monsters in Not-Lordran weren't dropping any new ones only made matters worse.

"Agh, son of a…" Kanji massaged his arm where the pain was slowly bleeding away, picking himself and his Drakeshield back up. "Well at least it still works at all. Good enough for stichin' chunks back into everyone, at least." He said, nodding to his exposed flesh under the hole in his sleeves.

"For now, maybe." Yukiko said. She turned to Rise. "Rise-chan, can you tell how much further we are from the top of the tower?"

Given that this wasn't exactly a normal dungeon, she could only try. Kouzeon's visor settled in place as Rise focused, trying to peer through the void and assess what she saw inside. "...Three floors." She said after a moment of silence. "Three more areas like this above us."

"Huh. That's not too many, actually." Chie said.

"It's more than you'd think when our healing is getting worse all the time." Yukiko said back, her brow pinched in concern.

Sensing their supply of morale quickly spilling out thanks to this hole in the side, Yu clapped his hands together and caught everyone's attention. "C'mon everyone, heads up! We'll worry about the other floors when we get to them, but we're not there yet. The sooner we get out of here, the less time we have to worry about all this."

Mulling over his words briefly, Chie slapped her cheeks and put on her grittiest look of determination. "Yu-kun's right. We gotta kick this place's ass anyway, so we might as well make it quick!"

Like a spark setting alight a bonfire, Yu's words and Chie's enthusiasm bolstered everyone's spirits while quenching their fears simultaneously. Everyone's eyes turned upwards, they exchanged nods, they glared at the rickety wooden walkway ahead like it had insulted their respective mothers. Their fighting spirit flared back to life.

And with that, they ran on ahead, Yu leading the charge at the front.

* * *

It was getting closer. Astaire could feel it. The entire scene played out in excruciating detail in his mind. Every sound prickled his skin, every sensation ran a shock down through the core of his bones, all with a lucid familiarity. His body was a record player, and the buzz of the giant, fire-spitting mosquitoes was his LP.

"Ew! Ewewewewew these things are _so gross!"_ Rise squealed from behind the safety of Kanji's shield as he brushed away the flames from above. A volley of six rhythmic cracks sounded out as Naoto emptied her revolver's cylinder, sending four of the eight mosquitoes soaring off horizontally, spiralling to their doom somewhere 'below.'

Against the combined might of Naoto's bullets and everyone else's Personas, the mosquitoes weren't quite as troubling as Astaire remembered them to be. But it wasn't the mosquitoes he was worried about. He took a quick check of everyone's positions. Kanji, Naoto and Rise, accosted by mosquitoes but unharmed. Teddie, Yosuke and Chie, dodging and ducking under punches as launched from a towering giant, forged entirely from titanite. Lastly, Yukiko and Yu, healing everyone and defending one another respectively.

Given how preoccupied everyone was, it seemed the task fell to him."Everyone, be on your guard! This is where I got poisoned on my last excursion!" He shouted over the din of combat.

From underneath his shield, Kanji's eyes bulged. "Damnit, seriously?! Like hell can we keep this up if we all get hit with that stuff!"

Astaire broke off from the rest of the team, spear at the ready. "I'm not going to let that happen! Leave this to me!" He cried, running a short distance ahead. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a wooden barrel slowly peel apart and grow a pair of arms as it passed his shoulder. In one hand, it clutched a blowpipe. _"Not again, you cur."_ He growled under his breath, redirecting his sprint and aiming for the disguised hollow. He watched the blowpipe rise to meet a mouth-sized hole before he quickly darted to the side, just in time to avoid being darted himself.

Danger passing him by uselessly, a grin found its way to Astaire's face as he closed the gap and ran his spear straight through his barrel-wearing adversary. Revenge was a taste that not oft touched his tongue, but _how sweet it was_ when it did.

The brief excitement began to wear off as Astaire realised he'd almost sprinted entirely off the walkway and into the lava 'beneath' him. He peered down into the fiery, poisonous expanse of rock, wood and magma before him, and suddenly felt his stomach lurch. Whether it was the anomalous gravity or the sheer drop below him, he couldn't decide, but it froze him on the spot.

It froze him long enough to let something catch his ear. The sound of… _something quick_ hitting off wood.

Right as his ear was caught, so too was Rise's eye. "Everyone watch out, something's right on top of us!" She informed everyone, watching the sizable red enemy marker quickly make a beeline for them. Closer and closer. Homing in on Yu specifically. By God, it almost _was_ right on top of him.

...So where was it? Rise peeked under her visor to get a glimpse for herself, only to find Yu being assaulted by nothing but the stench in the air. "What the…? But it's right here! Kouzeon's never wrong!" Rise insisted, double checking her radar.

The sound had drawn closer to Astaire. Close enough for the source to become readily apparent.

He looked down between the messily-arranged wood at his feet..

Several pairs of beady eyes, attached to the one body, glared back at him.

The wooden platform erupted from underneath, showering the team in splinters and discarded wooden chunks. Everyone was thrown off balance as their only foundation rocked and heaved discontentedly, as shaken by the sheer force of the foe's arrival.

Rise readied herself to scan their new arrival, took one look at it, and felt her scream catch in her throat.

An enormous rat, twice as tall as Kanji, shook itself free of wooden debris. But it was wrong. _Malformed._ It had been thrown into a blender and mixed with something else, and whatever it was, _this_ was worse.

The rat had ill-fitting, lumpy flesh in place of fur, patterned with innumerable sets of black, bloodshot eyes which blinked and twitched independently of one another. Its mouth wasn't a rat's mouth. It was perfectly round when it opened to let out a cry, and filled with row upon row of needle-like teeth. Finally, the rat's tail, as thick as Astaire was broad, was ribbed up to the tip, where it splayed open and spewed sickly acid from within the deformed rat's body.

The acid dripped between the wooden walkway, bubbling as soon as it settled on anything solid. It only stopped when its surface was fully eaten away.

In the shared state of combined shock, everyone forgot to move. They were quickly reminded as the platform lurched underfoot. The lower the acid seeped, the closer they drew to a long fall and a quick, fiery death.

The first to move was Kanji as he raced forward and drove his Drakeshield into the rat's face as hard as he could, recoiling it in such a way that allowed Astaire to approach from the other side. He skewered the rat's neck straight through before his spear was ripped from his hands, the rat flailing and opening its lamprey-like mouth to deliver a guttural, angry screech.

The glimpse Kanji and Astaire shared couldn't have been half a second long, but it conveyed all they needed. With another pounding from Kanji's shield, the rat went off-kilter before he turned and echoed everyone's thoughts perfectly.

" _Everyone freakin' book it! NOW!"_

* * *

The pathway had warped in the small amount of time since Astaire had last set foot on it. Once completely straight, it now inclined and declined, large ramps and platforms seemingly having grown ladders from nowhere, leading onto an ever more twisted horizon.

Which would've been more concerning had everyone not been pursued by a giant Chaos Rat which was slowly destroying their only means of escape. For the moment, nothing else mattered. Not mosquitos, not titanite giants, not blowpipe hollows or anything else. The switch was so strongly thrown to _FLIGHT_ instead of _FIGHT_ that it had practically broken off altogether.

"This is bad... This is bad... This is _so_ bad..." Rise said between breaths as she sprinted at the back of the group. Sensing that she was beginning to fall behind, Astaire quickly swept her up from his side and carried her over his shoulder. Which was fine, until she realised it put her face-to-face with the Chaos Rat. " _This is worse, this is worse, this is worse!_ Spin me around, spin me around!" She panicked, slapping Astaire's back in a frenzy.

She stopped as she peeked behind the Chaos Rat proper, watching as the walkways they'd only just sprinted down broke apart and fell away, the acid making short work of them.

Okay, yeah, maybe now wasn't the best time.

The rat was without mercy. What monsters everyone left in their wake, be they mosquitoes or hollows, were thrashed headlong and sent barrelling over the side of the pathway. There was no discrimination, only destruction and raw killing intent.

In the midst of everything beyond the kitchen sink trying to murder them, Yu spotted a problem. Their walkway was coming to an end, and the only way down was a single ladder. He felt his chest tighten as he realised there wasn't going to be a quick way past this. More than enough time for the notably nimble, distorted rodent to finish them all off.

He had no choice. He interrupted his sprint and turned on a dime, summoning Sir Lancelot at the same time. His comrades ran past him before they realised what was happening, stopping to take their positions behind him. "Everyone, get down that ladder! I'll hold this thing off until we're safe!" Yu barked, already levelling his sword at the incoming foe.

"We haven't time for that!" Astaire barked back, being the only one who hadn't stopped running. "This place looks more like Blighttown than ever before, so follow my lead!" A command which everyone might've been quicker to act on, had following his lead not included what he did immediately after.

"Hey, hey, wait a minute! You're gonna miss the la- _AAAAAH!"_ Rise's insides took flight as Astaire slowed down and promptly stepped off the edge of the platform entirely. She heard the ladder fly past her head, watched the ground rush up to meet her. She closed her eyes and braced for impact and-!

Was completely fine. Her stomach lurched as it became very well acquainted with Astaire's shoulder on landing, but otherwise she was right as rain. Which was more than anyone else could say. She was tossed backwards as Astaire backstepped out of the way of a barrel-wearing hollow swinging a flaming torch at him. Normally, nothing to worry about. With his previous weapon embedded in the Chaos Rat's neck and his charge to keep safe over his shoulder, the worries began to manifest. "I hate to sound impatient but-!" Astaire dodged again, kicking the hollow in the side to try and keep it at bay. "-I would appreciate some assistance down here!"

And down assistance promptly came. The hollow immediately ceased to be as Kanji plunged shoulder-and-shield-first on top of it, liquefying the rotten assailant on contact and landing with a mighty _boom._ "Gah, frickin'... Nearly broke my damn shoulder there…" Kanji cursed as he quickly got to his feet.

The trio hopped out of the way as the rest of the team -sans Yu- plummeted from above. With a majestic flash of light overhead and a distorted, angry, gurgling roar, Lancelot parried the rat and sent it reeling backwards, giving Yu the time to turn tail and quickly throw himself down onto the lower platform. He landed with a roll before immediately breaking into a sprint. "If we're fast enough, we might actually leave that thing behind! Everyone keep it up!"

Nobody needed to be told twice.

* * *

Down, down, down everyone fell. Or whatever way they were _actually_ going with the gravity all messed up. They ducked under swings from hollows, sidestepped streams of lava from Basilisks, and swatted aside assaults from more mosquitoes than any one person could keep track of. To top it all off, they leapt across gaps and plummeted down platforms at such a rate that catching their breaths was naught but a far-off dream.

And still the Chaos Rat pursued them.

"Screw this thing! Screw it right to hell!" Chie roared as she dropkicked a hollow off the platform's edge, wiping the deluge of sweat from her face as she got to her aching feet again. "How can something that huge be that freaking quick?! Your world sucks, Astaire-san!"

"Tell us something we don't know!" Yosuke yelled back at her, latching onto her arm and bringing her up to speed with everyone else. They had little time to waste with fighting every enemy chasing them, much less dropkicking them.

And yet, in everyone's panicked, fervorous marathon, at least one person managed to remain level-headed. "Perhaps… I'm just being… optimistic…" Naoto panted heavily, unloading a shot into an incoming mosquito as she forged ahead. "But that looks… like a rest point to me!"

Following Naoto's field of view, true enough, in the distance lay a layer of what appeared to be stone, so wide and so tall that it seemed to stretch on forever, perforated with holes which spewed out the magma they'd been running above and alongside. But less interesting than its limitations and its output was the ungracefully carved-out cave which was drilled in the center, and the large, foreboding wall of fog at the end of it.

"Oh hell yes! We're almost there!" Chie whooped, all but clicking her heels together in the air. "Once we're back on solid ground, we can beat that freaky-looking rat asshole into- _Agh!"_ She stopped on the spot. Her hand instinctively went to her left side, just under her armpit. Whatever had pierced her sports jersey and breached her skin, it was small and thin.

"Chie! _Gah-!"_ Yu had been the first to turn to help her, only to find himself nailed with the same small, thin projectile which stabbed into his lower torso.

Of those who spun around to face their comrades in response, only Astaire's gaze missed them, instead drawn to the shape jittering around above Chie's shoulder. The quivering, cackling shape of a barrel-clad hollow, abruptly thrown out of its levity by the callous thrashing the Chaos Rat delivered to it.

The blowdarts in both Chie and Yu's skin felt as though they were beginning to heat up. Subtle at first, then escalating at a rate unlike any poison either of them had ever felt. "Oh, crap… This feels kinda… kinda…" Chie tried to say, but her head began to feel like someone was pumping it full of helium, and her stomach, lead.

Yu's fingers fumbled, trying to reach into one of his pockets for a possible cure and failing miserably. "H-How long…?" He asked nobody in particular through marbles of sweat.

Yu. The rat. The cave. The platform collapsing behind them. Yu. The cave. Finally, his thoughts becoming too fast to reliably keep up with, Astaire turned to Yu again. "Long enough, I hope."

Before he had a chance to protest, Astaire gave up his Demon's Spear in favour of whipping Yu off his feet and hauling him over his shoulder to neighbour Rise. If he hadn't protested before, he certainly piped up when Astaire shoved the Blade of Totsuka into his box as well. "Hey, wait… I can manage by myself…!" He insisted as the haze descending over his eyes grew thicker.

"Give it a minute." As Astaire took a step forward, he was interrupted as the walkway beneath him seemed to shudder and groan. Wood creaked and eventually snapped, the destruction wrought by the Chaos Rat's acid coming closer with every second wasted, and the rat itself not far in front. With the weight of two extra bodies on either side, and one being heavier than the other, it wasn't easy to retain his balance.

"Someone pick up Chie-senpai so we can get outta here already!" Rise screamed as death and acid loomed ever closer towards them.

Sensing he was going to get a kick in the ribs later, but favouring that over outright death, Kanji whipped Chie over _his_ shoulder as well, passing Astaire by engulfed in a cloud of swearing, kicking and punching. "Outta everyone I have to frickin' carry…" Kanji grumbled on his way past.

But he could ignore the attempted beatings for a while yet. The end was in sight.

* * *

Chie Satonaka didn't scream. Screaming was something that _girls_ did, or at least something _typical_ girls did when they were hurt. Chie got hurt, sat up, licked her wounds, then got right back up again. She did a lot of things, but she _never_ screamed.

But she screamed. She screamed and screamed until her face went purple and her voice went hoarse. She writhed and thrashed in agony, clutching at her skin as though trying to eviscerate her arm and rip the fire in her veins out by hand. Tears streamed down her cheeks, her mouth stretched wide until nothing beyond breaking her jaw would widen it further, and sweat coated her like she'd just come in from the rain.

Yosuke watched and tried to hold back his own tears, unsure whether they should be motivated by rage or sorrow. He figured he would find out once they had time to stop sprinting.

But if things were bad for him, they were twice as harsh for Yukiko. Because she couldn't remember ever hearing Yu scream as he did either.

He was always so calm and collected. Stable and knowing. He'd made tough decisions and been in scenarios that would've made quick work of other guys. She could chalk it up to that first 'cycle' of his, but having the will to go through what he did _twice_ spoke volumes about how tough he was.

Now he was screaming and flailing about violently on Astaire's shoulder, his face as far from 'composed' as one could be. Yelling, choking, coughing, crying. Alongside her best friend, who rarely ever did the same.

Some small part of Yukiko was thankful for the mutated nightmare nipping at their heels. If she hadn't something else to focus on, their screams might have driven her mad. Not that she was far off as it was.

"Senpai, please!" Rise begged through a wall of her own tears. "I know it hurts, but if you don't stop kicking- _AH!"_ She squealed as the walkway shifted again, the structural integrity of the walkway underfoot dropping at rates that could only be called 'worrying.' Where once their feet had fell mid-sprint, sections of the path not far behind them crumbled and collapsed.

A problem for anyone, much less a man carrying two other people, with one desperately, if unintentionally, trying to break free. "If you don't stop kicking, I'm going to wind up dropping you altogether!" Astaire yelled as he forced his center of gravity to stop going haywire. "I know how it feels, Mr. Narukami, I do! But we only need a short while longer!"

"Rrrrgh! Why can't you be like other rats and scurry off where nobody can see you?!" Teddie asked as another cast of Bufudyne encased the rat in ice, only for it to instantly shatter apart the moment it had settled. It was better than constantly gaining on them, but not by much. Claw raised, primed for another casting, Teddie stopped as something grabbed the back oh his collar.

Specifically, Yosuke. "Would you take a hint?! All you're doing is pissing it off even more!"

And pissed off, it was. The midsection of the Chaos Rat pulsed and bloated, glowing a bright orange under the skin. It wheezed as it inhaled, a faint lick of embers dancing at the back of its throat.

"It's going to fire something! Everybody watch-!" Rise began from her front row view atop Astaire's shoulder. She stopped as Yu's screaming deafened her anew, verging on the sound of legitimate death throes. His foot bucked forward and slammed into Astaire's solar plexus, and all at once everything regressed to slow motion. Rise felt his balance disappear, watched the walkway rush up to meet her, and braced as Astaire doubled over and collapsed from the weight.

She lifted her head to find herself staring down the Chaos Rat's gaping mouth as its body ceased bulging in front of her. Astaire joined her, and both found themselves devoid of words.

There was no time to get up and run. Diminished strength aside, Astaire was still winded. No time to grab a Greatshield either. Everyone else had been running in front of them. There was too big a gap for them to make it now.

Rise and Astaire stared death in the face, then stared at each other, both desperate for a solution that would get them out alive.

They both said nothing.

The Chaos Rat's body collapsed as it spewed forth a thick plume of flames, like a thousand grenades had gone off inside it and the combined force directed solely at them. Even in the presence of Blightzilith's sweltering, stinking heat, they could feel the intensity before it even hit them.

There was nothing left to do beyond brace for death, and that's exactly what they did.

" _YU-KUN!"_

For the second time, the succeeding chain of events played out in a crawling slow motion before Astaire and Rise both. What couldn't have taken half a second felt like it was displayed for hours.

Blue fog and blistering heat gave way to blinding, golden light. A familiar humanoid figure, clad in a cloak of golden feathers, manifested above Yu, Rise and Astaire, as though Saint Peter had come down personally to escort them to the pearly gates. Instead, the figure placed itself between the trio and the Chaos Rat's torrent of fiery death.

With eyes wide and jaw unhinged, Astaire watched as Sumeo-Okami moved with the grace of a ballerina, taking hold of the golden sword at its side and spinning its golden cloak around in front of it. In the same move, the incoming fire _redirected its course,_ the plume of flame bending around Sumeo-Okami's body and over the trio's heads. It brought the image of a bullfighter to Rise's mind.

Yukiko belted out a battle cry from behind as her Persona all but threw the fire back whence it came, pelting the Chaos Rat head-on and pummeling it back without mercy. Every bulging eye on its body squinted and cringed at the pain, and its body rocked from side to side to try and shake it off. However, all the shaking did was spread the acid from its tail all the further around it, eating through the wood around it.

Sensing where things were about to go, Yukiko rushed in and helped Rise to her feet, allowing Astaire to finally catch his breath and pick up Yu mid-spasm anew. Without a word, they bolted down the rest of the walkway.

Yukiko glanced over her shoulder to see the Chaos Rat attempt to chase them once more, only for its first step to disappear through the wood below it. Then another, and another still. The monstrous creature cried out and clawed at the wood as it fell away underneath it, before the rampant destruction which had been coming up from behind them managed to catch up.

The wooden walkway collapsed, and with it, the Chaos Rat. It fell away into the distance with a desperate cry which was abruptly cut short as it disappeared into one of the spires of magma flowing through the air.

Yukiko faced forward once again, now wearing a satisfied smirk. Job well done.

* * *

"And you thought you could handle _that_ on your own." Rise grumbled.

"Well it's all the better that I didn't, given the state of things now." Astaire mumbled back, stealing a quick glance at the empty expanse before them, the large obsidian doors naught but a tiny dot in the distance. There was truly nothing left of Blightzilith in between. Not that he minded, not at all. "Although it would've avoided _this_ at least." He said, waiting until the last of the light from Yukiko's healing disappeared before feeding Yu a clump of blooming, purple moss.

It wasn't a cure, not wholly. Blooming moss only cured toxicity and poison, not… whatever _that_ had been. But it was enough to allow Yu to stop kicking and screaming, simmering down to a pained, fatigued calm. He could still feel the throbbing heat in his veins, but it was more of a low simmer than an outright boil.

"Here, Senpai, drink this." Rise urged him, putting a particular can of soda to his lips to help the moss wash down. Amrita Soda, he figured, because the moment it passed his lips, the fire within him was snuffed out and he no longer felt like his skin was going to melt off. It must've been showing on his face, too, because Rise sighed in relief from watching him. "Thank goodness… I hope you're alright after all that."

For a moment, Yu wasn't sure that he was. The pain was gone, but his recollection of it was crystal clear, to the point where he doubted it was going to leave his mind for a good long while. Nonetheless, he wiped the copious amounts of sweat off his forehead and gave Rise a smile. "I'm fine, Rise. Thanks."

" _Bleeegh!_ What the hell was _that?!"_ A suddenly very spritely Chie yelled through Astaire. "It tasted like licking the inside of a dumpster, holy crap!" She wretched, spat a number of times, then forcefully grabbed the can of Amrita Soda from Astaire and gulped the rest of it down in one go. After munching on something as foul as purple moss, she swore she'd never think less of any meal she had for the rest of her life.

"You lick dumpsters often enough to know that?" Laughed a relieved Yosuke before Chie's foot made friends with his ribcage.

"Aah, it's nice to have everything back to normal!" Teddie said, smiling up from the ground as he lay face-first on the stone.

He yelped as Kanji prodded his side with his shoe. "Hell're you tryin' to down there, Ted?"

"I'm resting. My legs are like jelly after all that running!"

A statement which, upon being said, seemed to inflict the same condition upon everyone else. As Yu and Chie felt well enough to get up from the ground, everyone else found themselves inexplicably drawn towards it, as though someone had pulled a plug and let all the adrenaline from their chase spill out. The only answer was to rest.

With their backs resting against the wall, everyone held a moment of silence as they relished in their hard-fought downtime.

After a short time, the silence inevitably broke. "Did any of you guys see those crazy moves Yukiko-senpai pulled back there?!" Rise enthused, her fists balled and her eyes bright. "Holy cow, that was _so cool!"_

Everyone's heads turned in unison, and all of a sudden Yukiko decided she didn't exactly like being the center of attention. She hid her blush behind her hands and glanced off to the side. "Oh, really, it wasn't anything _too_ special…"

"Are you mad?!" Astaire suddenly blurted out, expression rife with disbelief. "I've never seen anything like that before! Not from Lordran, and certainly not from here! Special doesn't even cover it!"

Oh goodness, now they all looked _even more_ interested. She'd have shot him an icy glare, but chances were her blush would've melted it right out of the gate. "C-Come now, it's really not that-"

" _But it is!"_ Astaire insisted all the harder.

"Just take the compliment, Yuki-chan!" Teddie said as he rolled over onto his back. "...Wait a minute, Stairry-kun-!"

"Please stop calling me that."

"When I met up with you and Rise-chan way back when, didn't _you_ do fiery things like Yuki-chan as well?" Teddie continued, handily ignoring Astaire's request.

For a moment, Astaire stared at the ground and tried to figure out how best to word his meaning. When he felt confident enough, he slipped on the ring Sieglinde had given him and willed his Pyromancy Flame into his palm. "Pyromancy only appears similar to an untrained eye. It is indeed fire, but it is fire as kindled from the power of one's soul."

A hum from Naoto. "Something akin to what gives Personas their power, I imagine."

"That may well be. I wouldn't be the one to say. Regardless-" Rubbing his hand down the front of his armour, the small flame snuffed out. "-it is the power of one's soul. Not legitimate fire. What Ms. Amagi has done is manipulate _actual, living fire._ Such a power would've caused quite the commotion in Lordran, I imagine."

Chie let out a whistle. "Whaddya know. You could've been famous in this world _and_ the other one, Yukiko."

"Or an arsonist." Yu chuckled at the unfriendly look Yukiko shot at him before she cracked and did the same.

What little levity lay in the air didn't last, as everyone's gaze slowly drifted towards the fog wall at the end of the cave. They were going to have to get to it sooner or later. There'd be no Save Point to help them escape if they didn't. "Hey." Kanji piped up towards Astaire. "Any clue what it might be?"

Astaire shook his head before he felt Rise's elbow nudge into his side. "C'mon, take a guess! Like, something you fought here before, or whatever!"

Easier said than done, given where they'd just run through. Unlike Sen's Fortress or the Darkroot Garden, there wasn't exactly a _last time_ for Astaire to have much precedence to guess from. Between a drake, a giant and a wolf with a greatsword, there was at least _some_ tenuous connection to Lordran's original form. But this?

Stroking his chin in thought, Astaire gnawed on his bottom lip. No, no, don't overthink it. If where they stood now truly _was_ a fusion of Blighttown and Lost Izalith, that simply meant there were two possibilities instead of one, right?

"Hmm. Well, firstly, how accustomed are you to spiders?" Astaire asked.

The way Rise, Yukiko, Chie, Naoto and Teddie's faces suddenly became very pale and very grave told him all he needed. "Easy peasy." Yosuke said, regretting having spoken as every pale face around him shot him a betrayed look. "...I mean, they're just little bugs with eight legs, right? No biggie. We can use Kanji's shield as a flyswatter and call it a day."

"No, I mean _large_ spiders."

Oh no. "Y-You mean, like, a tarantula, or…?"

"Taller than me."

 _Oh hell the fuck no._ Yosuke and Kanji's faces quickly joined everyone else's, save for Yu and Astaire himself. "B-But by all means, that may not be the case! It could always be-!"

 _Slap._ "Nuh-uh." Said Rise over her hand, which she'd launched over Astaire's lips before he could go any further. "Not one more word, okay? Please?" She begged, eyes aquiver. After a quick nod, she sat back down and tried to relax.

Her rest was cut short as Yu brought himself to his feet. "Spiders or no spiders, we need to get outta here." He motioned to the fog wall as he stretched his arms and legs. "And really, how bad could it be? We've fought worse."

"Easy for you to say…" Yukiko mumbled under her breath, despite picking herself up as well. "Are you sure you're both feeling alright?" She asked to Yu and Chie both. "You _were_ both screaming and rolling on the floor not long ago."

Chie laughed and waved a hand dismissively. "It'll take more than that to keep me or Yu-kun down!" She said, although it didn't escape Yukiko's notice that she was shifting her weight onto one side. Nor that Yu was doing the same.

In the midst of her ensuing tirade of worry and frustration, everyone took to readying themselves for battle. Which was easier for some than others, given- "Oh hell, not again!" Astaire's spear had been lodged in the Chaos Rat when it had plummeted to its doom. He grumbled and mumbled as he stuck the Blade of Totsuka in the ground for Yu and went about feeling around for something for himself. "For pity's sake, I must stop being so careless…"

Hs hand dove deep into the box and wrapped around something. Weighty enough to have been etched with titanite, but light enough to be usable. With a flourish and a silvery gleam, the curved blade of the Falchion found itself at his side. "Are we ready to go?" He asked between a few nimble practice slashes.

"You bet we are." Yu said, freeing himself from Yukiko's barrage of concerns to retrieve his sword from the ground and swing it over his shoulder. He motioned for everyone to follow him to the fog wall, which, after a few pre-battle grunts and face-shakings, they did.

The fog seemed to reach out and clog up everyone's throats, the tense atmosphere putting a boot to their respective windpipes. For a moment, everyone simply stood before the wall and silently steeled their nerves.

Well, relative silence. A "Hmm." and the rhythmic sound of metal tapping off metal caught Rise's attention amidst the sea of nerves. Astaire's fingers drummed off the hilt of his Falchion as he frowned in thought.

"Something up?" Rise asked, kicking him free from his daze. "Anything we should know before going in?"

He shook his head. "Not quite, no. It's just…" He paused and looked over his shoulder at where the wooden walkways had been before. "Those basilisks, and that Rat, for another thing… I don't seem to remember seeing any, neither in Blighttown norLost Izalith. They seemed awfully out of place amidst everything else."

"Maybe they wandered in from somewhere else." Yosuke shrugged.

To which Chie scoffed, "And what? Pushed those bigass doors open and closed up behind them? I doubt that."

The puzzle beginning to bore a hole in everyone's heads, Kanji eventually shrugged his shoulders and said, "C'mon, not like it matters now, right? We're almost outta this dump anyway. Lets just go kick ass so I can stop sweatin' up a storm over here."

Clearing his thoughts, Astaire shook his head. "You're right, perhaps I'm simply overthinking things. At your leisure, Mr. Narukami."

Watching everyone step through the fog wall, Astaire mentally berated himself. Pfft. Basilisks and rats. So what? Everything between them and the forest was dead and gone, how could such a thing possibly matter?

Following after Rise and forging his way through the fog, the first thing Astaire set eyes on shot his jaw to the ground.

Alright, maybe it mattered _a little._

* * *

From afar, a lone figure coiled themselves around the broken base of what had once been a support beam for a wooden walkway far above them. The tail of his suit jacket hung horizontally from his back, owed to the strange gravitational anomaly surrounding him.

He watched as lesser beings perished below him. Undead, giant and malformed monstrosities alike. An impressive display of destruction, certainly. But that wasn't what interested him most.

His mind favoured the memory of that mutated rat with too many eyes, which he'd seen be thoroughly trounced from above his small surveillance post. Only one thought enamoured him more.

" _Were you keeping watch as I commanded?"_ Rattled a deep, rumbling voice from within his head. _"Or perhaps you fell asleep before they even arrived?"_

"Amidst such rampant destruction? You expect too much of me." The man replied to thin air, rumbling in a similar tone.

" _I expect what is owed from your reconnaissance skills thus far, you impertinent slacker."_ The other voice spat back.

The man felt a toothy grin overtake him. "Then perhaps my report shall rectify that. I have bore witness to a most… _interesting_ development quite directly." He waited, and was rewarded with an interested hum from his partner. His grin grew all the wider.

"It appears there is another child who may prove of use to us. Send someone to investigate the one called _Amagi_ in the coming days."


End file.
